Gaddafi ordered Lockerbie - Former Libyan Minister

Libya's former justice minister claims Colonel Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people in 1988.

Swedish tabloid Expressen says Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who has just resigned from his cabinet post in protest at the violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations, told their correspondent in Libya: 'I have proof that Gaddafi gave the order about Lockerbie.'

He told Expressen Gaddafi gave the order to Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.

'To hide it, he (Gaddafi) did everything in his power to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland,' Abdel-Jalil said.

Al-Megrahi was granted a compassionate release from a Scottish prison in August 2009 on the grounds that he was suffering from prostate cancer and would die soon. He is still alive.

The Expressen said its reporter, Kassem Hamade, interviewed the ex-justice minister at 'a local parliament in a large city in Libya.'

The interview is sure to provoke fury on both sides of the Atlantic, and stoke yet more international pressure on the Libyan leader, who is desperately clinging to power after a popular uprising against his dictatorial rule.