'LOCKERBIE TRIAL FLAW'.

Byline: STEPHEN WHITE

THE Lockerbie appeal heard yesterday that the 2001 conviction of a Libyan for the bombing was based on "wholly circumstantial evidence".

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi's second attempt to clear his name got under way yesterday.

Al Megrahi is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years after being convicted of bombing Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 and murdering 270 people.

He lost an appeal in 2002 but in 2007 the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred his case back again.

Representing Al Megrahi, Margaret Scott QC told the court of appeal in Edinburgh: "The appellant's position is that there has been a miscarriage of justice."

Ms Scott told the judges the trial court's conclusion centred on four "critical inferences". These were that Al Megrahi bought the clothing in the suitcase containing the bomb, that the purchase was on December 7 1988, that the buyer knew why the clothing was bought, and that the suitcase entered the system at Luqa airport in Malta.

But she told the court these were all areas of dispute.

Al Megrahi followed proceedings by video link to Greenock Prison. His QCsaid his condition had "deteriorated" since he was diagnosed with cancer last year and as a result he would need frequent breaks.

CAPTION(S):

APPEAL Al Megrahi