Libya’s former justice minister told a Swedish newspaper Wednesday that longtime Libyan leader Moammar al Gadhafi personally ordered the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, according to an Associated Press article published Wednesday.

All 259 passengers on board the plane died in the bombing, as well as 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. Thirty-five of the victims were Syracuse University students traveling home from studying abroad in London and Florence. One Libyan man, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was convicted for the bombing.

‘I have proof that Gadhafi gave the order about Lockerbie,’ said former justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil in an interview with Stockholm-based tabloid Expressen, according to the AP article.

Gadhafi, the 68-year-old who has controlled Libya since a 1969 military coup, never admitted to ordering the bombing, although he accepted Libya’s responsibility of it, according to the article. In 2008, Libya finished paying $1.5 billion to the relatives of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, according to an article published in The New York Times on June 10, 2009.

Abdel-Jalil, who stepped down as the justice minister of Libya because of the country’s crackdown on antigovernment demonstrations, failed to describe the proof, according to the AP article.

Ed Galvin, director of SU’s archives and records management who manages the Pan Am Flight 103 archives, said there is currently no substantial proof to back up Abdel-Jalil’s claim.

‘It’s an opinion right now,’ he said.

Expressen’s online edition stated its correspondents interviewed Abdel-Jalil in the Libyan city of Al Bayda outside the local parliament, according to the AP article. A longer version of Abdel-Jalil’s interview will be published in the Expressen’s print edition on Thursday, according to the article.

Al-Megrahi was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and told by doctors he only had three months to live. He is still alive, and controversy surrounds his release, including speculation of a deal between BP and the British government.

U.S. senators began questioning in July whether BP officials encouraged the British government to release al-Megrahi so they could secure an offshore oil deal with Libya worth $900 million.

The medical prognosis behind al-Megrahi’s release was unsupported by science, according to a U.S. Senate report released Dec. 21, which was co-signed by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), among others.

Evidence indicates the two Scottish doctors attending to al-Megrahi had no training or experience treating prostate cancer, according to the report. Al-Megrahi’s prognosis was potentially influenced by false accounts from Libyan-hired doctors or pressure of economic and political consequences, according to the report.

Abdel-Jalil told Expressen that Gadhafi gave the order to al-Megrahi, according to the AP article. Abdel-Jalil also said Gadhafi did everything he could to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland to hide the order he gave, according to the article.

In August, President Barack Obama’s administration requested al-Megrahi be sent back to prison after questions surfaced regarding the bomber’s medical prognosis and BP’s alleged involvement in his release.

Every year, 35 SU seniors are chosen as Remembrance Scholars in honor of those who died in the bombing. Two students from Lockerbie are chosen to study at SU for a year as Lockerbie Scholars. The scholars plan Remembrance Week during the fall semester to remember those who died.

Duncan McNab, one of this year’s Lockerbie Scholars and a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the allegations against Gadhafi could provide closure to victims’ families if they are proven true. It would be a good thing for the victims’ relatives to know for sure who in the Libyan government was behind the 1988 attack, he said.

‘It’s not especially surprising, but we’ll have to see what kind of evidence comes out of it,’ McNab said of Wednesday’s news.

Galvin, the archivist, said the university is paying close attention to the events unfolding and is fully supportive of the victims’ families.

‘We’re watching it closely,’ he said. ‘There’s a great connection between the university and victims’ families.’

Thomas Wolfe, senior vice president and dean of student affairs, said he has gotten to know many of the victims’ family members over the years and looks for SU to continue to support the families in the United States and in Lockerbie.

Every time the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing comes up in the news, it creates an emotional response at SU, he said.

The university’s thoughts are with the victims of the bombing and their families, said Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs, in an e-mail.

‘Given the tremendous suffering this terrorist act caused innocent citizens, their families and their communities, we have always wanted justice to be served in this case,’ he said. ‘Anything that can help make that happen, such as today’s information, is a positive thing.’

jdharr04@syr.edu

Published on February 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jon: jdharr04@syr.edu