World Lockerbie bomber appeal set to begin at Scotland's High Court

LONDON (Reuters) - Scotland's High Court will begin hearing an appeal on Tuesday against the conviction of a Libyan man found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie aircraft bombing, the deadliest militant attack in British history.

© Reuters/David Moir A rose sits on the base of the main headstone in the Lockerbie Air Disaster memorial garden in Lockerbie, Scotland

Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 en route from London to New York, an attack that killed 270 people, mostly Americans on their way home for Christmas.

In 2001, Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was jailed for life after being found guilty of the murder of 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 residents of Lockerbie who were killed in the attack. He is the only person to be convicted over the bombing.

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The family of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Mohmet Al-Megrahi on Friday began a formal legal Three Scottish judges sitting at a special court in the Netherlands jailed Megrahi for life in 2001 but His appeal was referred to the High Court by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in

An appeal by the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is due to return to court later. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi - who is serving a life sentence in Greenock Prison - will not be in court . Megrahi has already lost one appeal against conviction but was granted a second by the Scottish

Megrahi, who denied involvement, died in Libya in 2012 after being released three years earlier by Scotland's government on compassionate grounds following a diagnosis of terminal cancer.

In March, an independent Scottish review body ruled his family could launch an appeal after concluding there might have been a miscarriage of justice.

"Overturning of the verdict for the Megrahi family and many of the families of British victims also supporting the appeal, would vindicate their belief that the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom stand accused of having lived a monumental lie for 31 years," the family's lawyer Aamer Anwar said in a statement.

Five judges will hear the appeal including the head of Scotland's judiciary, Lord Justice General Colin Sutherland.

Megrahi first appealed in 2002 but this was refused by Scotland's High Court. A second appeal was abandoned in 2009 just before his return to Libya.

In 2003, then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi accepted his country's responsibility for the bombing and paid compensation to the victims' families, but did not admit personally ordering the attack. However, Megrahi's family and some relatives of the Scottish victims have always doubted his guilt.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, editing by Estelle Shirbon)