Scottish appeals board to review Lockerbie bomb conviction

LONDON – Scotland's criminal appeals body says it will review the case of a Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, as his family tries posthumously to clear his name.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said Thursday it has decided "that it is in the interests of justice" to review the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi over the bombing, which killed 270 people.

Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. Al-Megrahi lost one appeal and abandoned another before being freed in 2009 on compassionate grounds. He died of cancer in 2012, still protesting his innocence.

The review commission will decide whether to hand the case to an appeals court.