Lockerbie

Town and former burgh in Dumfries and Galloway unitary authority, Scotland, 19 km/12 mi northeast of Dumfries; population (2001) 5,100. It hosts the largest lamb fair in Scotland, held annually in August. On 21 December 1988, the bombing over Lockerbie of Pan Am Flight 103 to New York killed 270 people, including 11 on the ground. The trial of the two Libyan suspects ended in January 2001, resulting in one conviction.

In August 1998, the UK and the USA agreed that the two Libyan suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing could be tried under Scottish law, by a panel of three Scottish judges, at a specially convened Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. Libya, which had originally proposed an international panel, responded positively. In December 1999, it was ruled that the two suspects should be tried on every count they faced, meaning that the broadest amount of evidence could be put before the court. The trial opened in May 2000 at Camp Zeist, and ended with a sentence of life imprisonment for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who was found guilty of murder. Al-Megrahi lost his appeal in March 2002 and was flown to Barlinnie prison in Glasgow, Scotland, to begin a life sentence.