Gadhafi says convicted Lockerbie bomber innocent

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says he'll release evidence Monday clearing the man found guilty in the Lockerbie airplane bombing.

Libyan secret agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was convicted by a special Scottish court of planting the bomb and sentenced to 20 years in jail.

• FROM JAN. 31, 2001: One guilty, one acquitted in Lockerbie trial

Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988, while en route from Frankfurt, Germany, to New York.

All 259 people on board and 11 more on the ground were killed. Two Canadians were among the dead.

Gadhafi made his comments after greeting Megrahi's co-accused, Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, who was acquitted and flew home from the Netherlands.

Megrahi's lawyers have two weeks to file an appeal.

In the wake of the ruling Libya had indicated it would consider compensating the families. But officials said they want to wait for the outcome of the appeal first.

The verdict has brought little closure to many of the families of the Lockerbie victims.

At a press conference in London Thursday, British relatives called for a public inquiry into many unanswered questions.

"For many of us it would help to know the identity and motives of those who ordered the murder of our loved ones. How they did it and why they weren't prevented from doing so," said Jim Swire who lost his daughter Flora in the bombing.

Swire says he's also troubled by evidence about the electronic timing device used to trigger the bomb.

He says it's possible another type of device was used one which could implicate a Palestinian extremist.

Few believe Megrahi acted alone and they blame Gadhafi.

American relatives of Lockerbie victims are pushing ahead with a $10 billion civil suit against the Libyan government.

They believe that's the best way of holding Libya to account for what they say is a blatant case of state-sponsored terrorism.