Lockerbie's Memorial: One Guilty Man Starts Life in a Scottish Cell

The Libyan intelligence agent who murdered 270 people in the Lockerbie bombing experienced his first night in the Scottish jail cell where he will spend the next 20 years last night after his appeal was thrown out by five judges.

Only hours after the appeal court judges announced that they had unanimously rejected Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's appeal on all grounds, the Libyan responsible for the biggest act of mass murder in British history was flown to his specially constructed cell in Glasgow's Barlinnie prison.

His transfer to Scottish soil finally brings to an end the most extensive and expensive criminal investigation and judicial process ever mounted by British authorities.

As Lord Cullen told the Scottish court in the Netherlands that Megrahi's appeal was not "well founded", the Libyan's wife, Aissa, screamed and had to be helped from the court by her family. From behind bullet-proof glass, Megrahi glanced and wiped sweat from his face.

For the American and British relatives who have spent the 13 years since their loved ones died campaigning and pushing for justice, yesterday was a monumental day. In the courtroom, they hugged each other. Some shouted "yes".

"Finally there is justice today," said Kathleen Flynn, of Montville, New Jersey, whose 21-year-old son was on board the plane. Speaking outside the court, she called the ruling a "milestone against terrorism".

Jim Swire, leader of the UK Families Flight 103 group, said it was time for the government to make good its promises and hold a public inquiry. He invited people across Britain to hold a minute's silence for those who died.

"This is not a time for celebrating," he said. "It is a time to gather our forces together and think what we can do. This result today is the result of the best available criminal process we could have hoped for in the face of our search for truth and justice."

In their 200-page written judgment, the appeal court judges said the circumstantial evidence which led to Megrahi's conviction had been left unshaken by the arguments of defence lawyers. "In reaching its decision to convict the appellant, the trial court found that the evidence fitted together to form a real and convincing pattern," they said. The judges saw no reason to disagree.

Last January, Megrahi was convicted of murdering the 259 passengers and crew on board the Pan Am jumbo and the 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie who died when the plane wreckage came crashing through their homes on December 21 1988.

He planted the bomb, which was hidden inside a radiocassette recorder, inside an unac companied suitcase on an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt from Luqa airport. At Frankfurt, it was transferred onto a feeder flight for the Pan Am jumbo, before it finally reached its target at Heathrow.

During three weeks of argument at the Camp Zeist courtroom, defence lawyers claimed that key evidence - notably an identification of Megrahi by a Maltese shopkeeper - was unsafe. They also brought new evidence of a break-in at Heathrow, where the defence claimed the bomb was planted, just hours before the Lockerbie bombing.

The verdict was met with anger in the Arab world. Outside the court, Hafid Jhoja, president of the Libyan bar association said: "The trial was a political matter, not a legal matter. There was no clear evidence, as the whole world knows."

In Tripoli, a foreign ministry spokesman demanded the return of Megrahi, but, away from the media grandstanding, Colonel Gadafy's regime is being more subdued as the diplomatic process to bring it back into the international fold continues.

American relatives of those who died have launched a multimillion dollar civil action against the Tripoli regime. Sources close to the civil case have told the Guardian that Libyan lawyers have become more conciliatory since Megrahi's conviction last year and the Arab country appears prepared to meet the demands of the international community and pay compensation to the families of the victims.

"We are looking for punitive damages, we want to hit Libya where it hurts, and we expect them to settle within a year," said Bruce Smith, who was the first relative to launch an action against the north African country.

In London, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said he hoped the appeal court's decision would bring solace and comfort to the families.