Lockerbie families head for bomber's appeal

Relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing are travelling to Holland for the first stage of the appeal of the Libyan convicted of the atrocity.

A preliminary hearing for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi's appeal against his murder conviction takes place at Camp Zeist near Utrecht tomorrow.

Two British fathers who lost their daughters in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 - in which all 259 passengers and crew died as well as 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie - were today making the journey to Holland to be at the appeal hearing.

Dr Jim Swire and the Rev John Mosey were at Camp Zeist for virtually every day of 49-year-old Al Megrahi's trial which began last May and ended in January this year.

Al Megrahi was jailed for life after being convicted of mass murder by three Scottish high court judges.

His co-accused Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah was acquitted.

Mr Mosey, who lost his 19-year-old daughter Helga in the bombing, said: "We feel it's important that someone from the families is there to see that justice is done."

Dr Swire, whose daughter Flora, 23, was killed, said: "We followed the whole of the trial so it makes sense to follow this stage as well."

Dr Swire also revealed how he and other members of the UK Families Flight 103 pressed Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for a full inquiry into the tragedy at a recent meeting.

He said: "We intimated that in our view it's extremely urgent to have an inquiry because Lockerbie was always an avoidable tragedy."

Al Megrahi was granted leave to appeal against his conviction earlier this year.

The hearing tomorrow before five Scottish judges - Lords Cullen, Kirkwood, MacFadyen, Nimmo-Smith and McEwan - will consider various procedural and administrative matters.

The hearing is expected to last a day and to set the date for the start of the appeal which is likely to be early next year.

The full grounds of Al Megrahi's appeal have not yet been made public.