LIBYAN authorities were “warned away” by the UK Government from providing financial support for the appeal by the family of the late Abdelbaset al-Megrahi – the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, a solicitor has claimed.

Now, with the third appeal under way, Aamer Anwar has told The National that lawyers in Libya have been instructed to file a case against the government there for failing to pay costs, and on breaching their own domestic constitutional law by failing to pay the legal fees of a Libyan citizen to pursue the posthumous appeal.

He is also pursuing a freedom of information request relating contact between Boris Johnson, on visits to Libya when he was foreign secretary, and the Tripoli authorities.

Anwar said his team were aware that those in the UK Government and Foreign Office did not believe it was in the UK’s interests for this Lockerbie appeal to go ahead.

While they were unable to interfere in our independent Scottish legal system, however he said they had maintained “their interference in Libya”.

Anwar said: “When one considers the hand of the UK Government was allegedly behind the pressure on al-Megrahi dropping his appeal to be allowed to return home to die, it comes as no surprise that the UK Government is so determined to conceal the truth.

“Only recently the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab argued that two protected documents should not be released, which were relevant as they are believed to incriminate a Syrian Palestinian terror group.

“It is abundantly clear from the information we have been provided that the Libyan authorities were warned away from providing any financial support for the appeal.

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“Libyan journalists advised us that they were unable to report any information on the pending appeal over the last six years [as] to do so would have led to problems with the authorities.

“It has only been [in] the last 24 hours due to social media pressure that Libya media has felt obliged to report on a case that has underpinned the impact of the Lockerbie bombing on their country over the last two decades.”

Johnson was foreign secretary between 2016 and 2018 and visited Libya twice in 2017, in May and August, when he announced a £9 million aid package to deal with the growing threat of terrorist groups and the problem of migrants risking their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean.

However, Anwar said: “It had already been announced on July 4, 2017, in Scotland, that we had lodged a new bid to appeal against Megrahi’s conviction, five years after his death.

“We are told that the potential appeal was on the agenda on Johnson’s visit to Libya.

“It was during Johnson’s second visit to Libya that they agreed to extradite the Manchester Arena bomber Abedi to the UK despite previous refusals to hand over Libyan nationals to foreign jurisdictions.

“As the appeal comes to an end and we will await the decision of the court, it is simply not acceptable for the UK Government to continue to interfere in Libya let alone our independent legal process.”

The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.