The Rule of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi

Lockerbie
Two years after the U.S. ordered strikes on Libya, in December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland. During the inquiry into what caused the disaster, investigators focused on two Libyan agents, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah. For many years, Gaddafi refused to cooperate in the inquiry, declining to hand over the two implicated men, but he finally relented in 1999. After an eight-month trial, al-Megrahi was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Fhimah was acquitted. Al-Megrahi remained in jail until August 2009, when he was released after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis.

• Lockerbie Bomber's Release Casts a Shadow over Gaddafi Celebration