London: A man acquitted of the Lockerbie bombing, in which 270 people were killed, has said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi should be tried in court over whether he ordered the 1988 attack.
Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah was cleared of mass murder for the bombing of the Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in January 2001, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground.
At the trial in the Netherlands, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was found guilty and ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years. He was released in 2009 on compassionate grounds.
Fhimah was found not guilty and freed. He returned to Libya to a hero's welcome and was greeted by Gaddafi, The Independent reported.
Fhimah has said he considers himself one of the victims of the Gaddafi regime.
"I don't know whether Gaddafi had anything to do with Lockerbie or not. There is a court and he is the one to explain whether he is innocent or not. He has to," Fhimah told Swedish newspaper Expressen at his home in Tripoli.
"I was never a part of the regime. I am an ordinary citizen, who was connected to a crime I had nothing to do with and I don't know who made that connection."
"I lost my travel agency in Malta. I had a farm that I was forced to sell in order to provide for myself and my family. I haven't received any compensation from the regime," he said.
IANS
First Published: Sunday, August 28, 2011, 19:33