A HOLYROOD committee has rejected a Tory MSP's call to close a petition demanding an independent inquiry into the conviction of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, had called for the Justice for Megrahi campaign's petition to be closed, as it took the committee "off at a tangent" from the inquiry into Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi's conviction.
The committee rejected that, with John Finnie MSP saying it would be "inappropriate" when a live criminal inquiry was ongoing.
Instead, MSPs on the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee are hoping to find out if moves have been made that could lead to a further appeal on behalf of Megrahi.
It will contact the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), an independent body that investigates possible miscarriages of justice.
Committee convener Christine Grahame said they would be seeking to discover if any application or inquiry had been made, by any member of the Megrahi family or anyone with an interest, to the SCCRC.
Sir Stephen House, the chief constable of Police Scotland, will also be written to, as MSPs are worried allegations about the original Lockerbie investigation are being sidelined.
The Justice for Megrahi campaign has made allegations of criminality during the investigation of the Lockerbie disaster.
Detective superintendent Stuart Johnstone has written to the group's secretary, Robert Forrester, saying a "conflict" with the live investigation into the case remained "unresolved".
Ms Grahame was "very cross" with the lack of information regarding any investigation into Justice for Megrahi's allegations.
In December, the Libyan attorney general appointed two prosecutors for the case, and they met with Scottish and US investigators for the first time.
Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of the bombing, in which 270 died.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article