Lockerbie bombing: 'We've wanted justice - and it's coming'
- Published
The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 was the deadliest terror attack carried out in the UK
Thirty-five years after her brother Rick died in the Lockerbie bombing, Kara Weipz is hoping an end to the legal side of the case is in sight.
Kara leads an organisation which represents 400 relatives and friends of the Americans who were killed on 21 December, 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over the Scottish town.
The group has welcomed the prospect of a second Lockerbie trial.
But once the case against Abu Agila Masud has been concluded, Kara believes the Lockerbie file should be closed.
Prosecutors allege Masud made the bomb which destroyed the plane and was an accomplice of Abdulbaset Al Megrahi, his fellow Libyan who was convicted at the first Lockerbie trial 22 years ago.
The district court in Washington DC has set a starting date for Masud's trial - 12 May 2025, some 17 months from the 35th anniversary.
Even that distant date feels optimistic. It is an enormously complicated case and the defence has already indicated it may need more time to consider all the evidence.
Nonetheless, the setting of a potential starting date has been welcomed by Kara.
"It's finally justice in this country and it's something that members of the group have waited a very long time to see," she said.
"It's what we've wanted. We've wanted justice, and it's coming. Hopefully."
Kara Weipz and her father Bob Monetti have welcomed the prospect of a second Lockerbie trial
Kara and Rick's father Bob Monetti was president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 group before her.
"Some of us keeping hoping against hope that this idiot will realise how much evidence there is against him and plead guilty and cut out a year and a half," Bob said. "I'd like that."
Masud has entered a not guilty plea to charges of destroying an aircraft and killing 270 people.
Scotland's prosecution service will be heavily involved in the American trial, just as American prosecutors were heavily involved in the first Lockerbie trial, which took place under Scots Law at a specially convened court in the neutral Netherlands.
The head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, is in Washington for the annual Lockerbie memorial service at Arlington.
She describes the setting of the date as a significant step forward, and also promises that the inquiry into Lockerbie will continue.
Masud's trial is due to be held in Washington on 12 May, 2025
Abdullah Senussi was the intelligence chief for the Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi until his regime was toppled in 2011. He has previously been named as a suspect over Lockerbie by Scottish and American prosecutors.
"Senussi remains in custody in Libya," Ms Bain said.
"It's a very significant and important development to have a trial date fixed and an end in sight in relation to Masud's prosecution.
"It's important that we continue to investigate and bring to justice those who are responsible for this atrocity."
Lockerbie has always been the subject of a joint Scottish and American investigation.
Police Scotland's Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said: "There's always a prospect of this case progressing while people are still alive who we can continue to pursue and where we can potentially gather new evidence as things come to light."
People gathered at a ceremony in Lockerbie to mark the 35th anniversary
Flowers were laid in memory of the people killed in 1988
There's long been a difference of opinion over Lockerbie between some representatives of American and British relatives.
Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died on the plane, said: "Justice was denied at the first trial. What we're after is the truth. Why were our families not protected, and why are we still not being told all that we know our government knows about who was really responsible?"
Kara and her father have no doubt that Megrahi was involved and Lockerbie was an act of state-sponsored terrorism.
But they believe a line should be drawn after Masud's trial and any further information about the bombing which hasn't been made public in the courts should be revealed once the case against him is over.
"I love the tenacity," Kara said. "I love that the prosecutors and the investigators in the US and in Scotland are willing to keep going, and that they feel so strongly about this case.
"But I think there also has to be a reality here. Where is this new evidence going to come from if they haven't found it already?"
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