Monday, 20 May 2024

Lockerbie bombing: Ex-East German agents questioned over atrocity, reports say

Retired Stasi agents have reportedly been questioned over the Lockerbie bombing.

According to The Times Scotland, prosecutors are examining whether the East German intelligence service had a role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

The flight, travelling from London to New York, was attacked four days before Christmas – killing all 259 people on board.

Eleven people who lived in Lockerbie also died after the plane crashed into their homes, in what was Britain’s biggest terrorist atrocity.

German prosecutors reportedly arranged interviews with five former agents on behalf of the Crown Office.

The Stasi was a repressive security and secret police agency in East Germany between 1950 and 1990 – and it is alleged that the force supplied the detonator used to trigger the explosion.

Officials from the Frankfurt an der Oder prosecutor’s office said: “The former Stasi officers were interviewed as witnesses, not as suspects.”

German media has reported that 20 agents have been questioned in the investigation.

The Crown Office announced last December that they were pursuing new leads “in relation to the pursuit of other individuals involved in the conspiracy to commit the atrocity”.

Only one person has ever been convicted of the bombing, the former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al Megrahi.

Al Megrahi was released early from prison on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, and died in 2012.

A Crown Office spokesman said: “Prosecutors and police, working with UK government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with al Megrahi to justice.

“As this is a live criminal investigation, it would not be appropriate to comment.”

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