DECEMBER 21, 1988 – a date forever etched in the minds of thousands of people – the night hell rained down on the town of Lockerbie as Pan Am flight 103 was destroyed above it, killing a total of 270 people.

A three-year investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Police and the FBI resulted in the Netherlands trial of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah and the conviction of only the former.

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Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who seized power in oil-rich Libya in 1969, had watched his country suffer under international sanctions imposed by the UN in 1992 for his initial refusal to hand over the suspects.

His country has been a stepping-stone for migrants heading for Europe, but with the rise of jihadist groups there, it had also become a source of international concern.

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Gaddafi’s toppling and death in 2011 did not right what the West had seen as his wrongs. Instead, it left instability, with its new government unable to establish full control.

On March 11, 2003 Libya reached an agreement with the US and Britain to accept civil responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid $10 million (£7.7m) to each victim’s family.

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However, some were convinced that Megrahi was innocent, among them MSP Christine Grahame, who represents Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.

She, and others blame Iran, which is thought to have acted in revenge for the shooting down of one of its passenger planes the month before the Lockerbie atrocity, by guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, after which its captain was captured on video “celebrating” its destruction.

Grahame said: “Indeed following that incident the Iranians vowed revenge on the US. That made sense all those years ago and still does today.”

Many others would agree.