THE CAMP ZEIST VERDICT: We've got the puppet but his master pulling the strings is still free; FAMILIES WANT TO GO AFTER GADDAFI.

Byline: GRAHAM TIBBETTS

THE Scots judges who blamed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing may as well also have pointed the finger of guilt at Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan dictator's hands will forever be stained with the blood of the 270 people killed in the horror of Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.

A Scottish Court sitting in Holland found Al Megrahi guilty of planting the bomb - but he was only the messenger.

Every shoe, every wedding ring, every single scattered fragment that was once the PanAm jet was part of a trail of destruction that led back to the palaces of Gaddafi.

Despite links to previous terrorist outrages, he was battling to become accepted on the world stage. Now he is an international pariah once more.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Al Megrahi sent the bomb on its deadly journey to Heathrow and Pan Am 103, but politicians, relatives and terrorism experts are convinced it was on Gaddafi's orders.

And observers believe Libya was aided and abetted by Iran, which put up the cash, while a Syrian terrorist supplied the bomb.

Last night, Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said: "This confirms our long-standing suspicion that Libya instigated the bombing

"We expect the Libyan authorities to take full responsibility for the actions of their official."

Gaddafi stalled for almost eight years over releasing the suspects, demanding the trial go ahead in a neutral country and any sentence be served in a Libyan jail.

The reason for his reluctance was clear - a guilty verdict for the suspects would condemn his country.

Back in 1991 when the indictment was served on the pair they were identified as officers in the "Jamahirya Security Organisation" - the Libyan Intelligence Service - "through which Libya conducted acts of terrorism against other nations".

This part of the indictment was later dropped but Libya's terrorist record is black.

In 1984 WPC Yvonne Fletcher was gunned down by an assassin hidden in the Libyan embassy.

Two years later Gaddafi was linked to the bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three Americans.

President Ronald Reagan ordered his British-based F1-11s to attack the leader's home in the capital Tripoli, killing scores of Libyans.

And France is trying to prosecute Gaddafi over the bombing of a French plane in 1989 which killed 170 people.

Although the indictment initially accused Al Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah of planting the bomb "together with persons unknown", the belief is that one of the "persons" was Gaddafi.

Experts agree Al Megrahi would never have carried out his deadly mission without input from the Libyan leadership.

Professor John Grant of Glasgow University's Lockerbie trial briefing unit said: "It is inconceivable that Al Megrahi dreamt up this scheme on his own in a cafe in Malta".

Paul Wilkinson, Professor of International Relations at St Andrews University, says Al Megrahi could be part of a larger plot.

"The verdict does not mean that the Libyan regime and Al Megrahi were not in some way connected with a wider conspiracy," he said.

"It is feasible other nationalities were involved and this is a matter that should be the subject of further investigation."

As a head of state, the Colonel is immune from prosecution under international law - but if he ever steps down he loses that protection.

When Gaddafi refused to hand over the two suspects, the international community imposed sanctions.

But in recent years he displayed a willingness to co-operate with his old Western enemies.

He paid around pounds 250,000 to Yvonne Fletcher's family and worked towards re-establishing diplomatic links with Britain - but that growing friendship is hanging by a thread.

Syria and Iran also find the finger of suspicion pointing firmly at them.

Iran had the biggest motive for downing a US-bound plane. In July 1988 - less than six months before Lockerbie - the trigger-happy US Navy accidentally fired two missiles at an Iranian airliner over the Persian Gulf, wiping out all 290 on board.

Iran's interior minister Ali-Akbar Mohteshemi publicly swore to gain revenge in the "blood-spattered skies."

According to US intelligence, he offered a $10 million reward to Ahmed Jibril, the notorious Syria-based leader of a Palestinian terrorist group, for blowing up a US airliner.

Two months before Lockerbie, his henchmen were rounded up in Germany after raids in Dusseldorf and Frankfurt - the city where the bomb-laden suitcase was re-routed from Malta to Heathrow.

Among the 15 arrested was Hafez Dalkamoni who had three Toshiba cassette players fitted with Semtex.

Marwan Khreesat was also collared and his associates later confessed that he had made five Toshiba bombs.

Many investigators believe it was one of his two undiscovered devices which blew up the Boeing 747.

It's unlikely the arrests prevented Jibril's master plan going ahead - in fact, he boasted after the explosion that "no-one will ever work out how I did it."

Abu Talb, a member of Jibril's organisation, was named by the Libyan's defence team as the bomber, and he was called on as a prosecution witness during the trial.

He was in Malta weeks before the bomb was planted and a diary in his apartment had a circle drawn round the date of the explosion.

With one conviction secured, the victims' relatives want to see the light of justice shine on some of the darker corners of the case.

And US prosecutors have promised not to give up the hunt.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Bob Mullen said: "The investigation continues to determine who else may have been involved in this act of terrorism and to bring that individual or those individuals to justice.

"When we have evidence to bring to court any one else who played a part in this tragedy, we will indict.

"This case is not closed."

But defiant Libyan officials last night insisted: "The ruling is not the end of the story or the end of the world."

But they have accepted the court's verdicts - despite suggestions that Al Megrahi will appeal.

"The trial has ended and now Lockerbie belongs to the past," said foreign ministry official Hassounah el-Shawish.

"Libya looks forward to new and special relations."

CAPTION(S):

IT'S OVER: Peter Lowenstein hugs Aphrodite Tsairis outside the court; ATROCITY: Gaddafi gave orders; BOMB CONSPIRACY: Al Megrahi