FIVE retired agents from the feared Stasi secret police of the former East Germany are reportedly being questioned about the Lockerbie bombing.

All 259 passengers and crew were killed, along with 11 people whose homes were destroyed, when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the sky and fell on the Scottish town.

The only person ever convicted of the bombing was former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, but many questions remain about the atrocity.

His family and some relatives of the Lockerbie victims believe he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice and are fighting to clear his name.

Scottish investigators also believe other Libyan agents were involved and attention has also focused on the former East Germany’s Stasi intelligence service.

A team of nine officials from the Crown Office in Scotland, which oversees prosecutions, has asked the German authorities to interview some of the agency’s old employees, The Times reported.

The prosecutor’s office in the city of Frankfurt an der Oder on the Polish border confirmed to the paper it agreed to the requests over the past nine months.

In total five former Stasi officers, aged between 78 and 89, are being interviewed.

“We received the requests between summer 2018 and two weeks ago and have interviewed five witnesses here,” a spokesman said.

“The questioning is not over yet and so naturally I can’t give you any more information about what was said or what came out of it.”

LOCKERBIE BOMBING: WHAT HAPPENED

On December 21 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down by a terrorist's bomb over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

All 259 passengers and crew died along with 11 others on the ground who were killed by falling debris.

The Boeing 747 was heading for New York when it blew up about half an hour after taking off from Heathrow.

Sections of the falling debris scattered out over a wide area – with the fuel-laden wing section falling on the Sherwood area of Lockerbie, where the 11 ground victims were killed in a massive jet-fuel explosion.

Over 1,000 cops and 500 military personnel were rushed to the site of the disaster, but nearly all of the victims were killed.

On December 28, investigators announced they had discovered traces of high explosives in the wreckage, confirming that the incident was an attack rather than an accident.

In 2001, Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of the atrocity and sentenced to 27 years imprisionment.

But he was released in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer – from which he died in 2012 at the age of 60.

Earlier in 2018, a review of his conviction was announced amid speculation that others were involved in the attack.

Prosecutors in Potsdam, near the capital Berlin, confirmed they had provided the Scottish team with “legal assistance” but wouldn’t say if they whether the witnesses had been involved with the Stasi.

According to The Times, most those sought for questioning are believed to have worked in Department XXII, which reportedly had connections with terrorists in the 1980s.

It is unclear if the Stasi officials are being treated as suspects or what new information has led to their questioning.

Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up by the detonation of an explosive stored in a suitcase in the plane hold.

Megrahi died in 2012 after being released from Greenock jail on compassionate and he always maintained his innocence.

Stasi was the nickname for East German Ministry of State Security agents.

It was notorious for its surveillance of the public, of which many spied on each other.

Source: Read Full Article