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Despite new suspects, Lockerbie closure remains elusive

FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1988 file photo, a police officer walks by the nose of Pan Am flight 103 in a field near the town of Lockerbie, Scotland where it lay after a bomb aboard exploded, killing a total of 270 people. Scottish prosecutors said Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 they have identified two Libyans as suspects in the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over the town of Lockerbie, and want to interview them in Tripoli. Scotland’s Crown office said that Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch had agreed “that there is a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and U.S. investigators to treat two Libyans as suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing of flight Pan Am 103.” The unnamed Libyans are suspected of involvement with Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the attack. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1988 file photo, a police officer walks by the nose of Pan Am flight 103 in a field near the town of Lockerbie, Scotland where it lay after a bomb aboard exploded, killing a total of 270 people. Scottish prosecutors said Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 they have identified two Libyans as suspects in the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over the town of Lockerbie, and want to interview them in Tripoli. Scotland’s Crown office said that Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch had agreed “that there is a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and U.S. investigators to treat two Libyans as suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing of flight Pan Am 103.” The unnamed Libyans are suspected of involvement with Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the attack. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, File) FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1988 file photo, a police officer walks by the nose of Pan Am flight 103 in a field near the town of Lockerbie, Scotland where it lay after a bomb aboard exploded, killing a total of 270 people. Scottish prosecutors said Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 they have identified two Libyans as suspects in the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over the town of Lockerbie, and want to interview them in Tripoli. Scotland’s Crown office said that Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch had agreed “that there is a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and U.S. investigators to treat two Libyans as suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing of flight Pan Am 103.” The unnamed Libyans are suspected of involvement with Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the attack. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver, File)

By Associated Press 1 min read

LONDON (AP) – Diplomats say putting the alleged Lockerbie bombing perpetrators on trial remains a distant prospect, despite the identification of two new suspects.

Scottish prosecutors say they have asked Tripoli authorities to let U.S. and Scottish police interview two Libyans over the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet, which killed 270 people.

Scottish officials have not named them, but British authorities have previously sought to question Moammar Gadhafi’s former spymaster Abdullah al-Senoussi about the bombing.

A former British ambassador to Libya, Oliver Miles, said Friday that Libyan authorities would not hand over al-Senoussi, who is imprisoned there for crimes unrelated to Lockerbie. Miles said: “He is too hot in Libya. He’s the biggest fish in the pond.”

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who died in 2012, is the only person convicted in the attack.