LONDON: A prominent lawyer who represented the British victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has urged President Donald Trump to declassify US intelligence files related to the attack, Sky News reported on Friday.
Prof. Peter Watson, who served as secretary for the Lockerbie Disaster Group, has called on Trump to release the documents, arguing that the families of those killed “deserve transparency, truth and answers.”
Trump has previously moved to declassify files concerning the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., and Watson said he believes Lockerbie should be next.
“Nearly four decades later, as new trials and investigations continue, the pursuit of truth and justice for the victims and their families endures,” he said.
“The families of the victims are entitled to know as much as possible about what happened on the night of the bombing, and we know there are documents held by the US and UK intelligence services that fill the vacuum of understanding that remains today.”
Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew on board, along with 11 people on the ground.
Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing in 2003 and compensated the families of the victims to the tune of £2.1 billion ($2.7 billion), but significant questions about the attack remain with no public inquiry into the bombing held to date.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi was convicted for the bombing but was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2012.
Libyan suspect Abu Agila Masud, who is alleged to have built the bomb, will stand trial in the US in May. He denies all charges.
Watson sent his declassification request in a letter to Matthew Palmer, the charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in London.
He wrote: “We have seen a move from President Trump to declassify a number of federal secrets, and we believe Lockerbie should be next.
“The families have waited far too long. They deserve transparency, truth and answers.”
