LIBYA - March 14 - Megrahi's Conviction Upheld.

A Scottish appeals court upholds the conviction of Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi, a 49-year-old Libyan former intelligence agent, for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people over Lockerbie, Scotland. The five-judge panel rejects a defence appeal that argued new evidence would cast doubt on his conviction. Megrahi, who has been held at Camp Zeist since his extradition from Libya in April 1999, is to be transferred to a prison in Scotland to serve his sentence of 20 years to life. Presiding judge Lord Cullen says: "We have concluded that none of the grounds of appeal is well founded. The appeal will accordingly be refused. This brings the procedures to an end". The reaction of relatives of the victims, many from the US and the UK, is muted, mostly a shaking of hands. Kathleen Flynn, of Montville, New Jersey, whose 21-year-old son was killed in the plane, says: "Finally there is justice today". Speaking outside the courtroom, she calls the ruling a "milestone against terrorism". Tripoli officials reacted with anger to the verdict and security was increased around embassies and UN offices in Tripoli. The president of the Libyan bar association Hafid Jhoja said: "All the Libyan people, all the Arab people, are upset by this judgment".