WORLD : Swedish Court OKs Probe of Palestinian in Pan Am Bombing
A Swedish court cleared the way today for Scottish police to launch an investigation based on evidence linking a detained Palestinian with the 1988 Lockerbie bomb explosion that downed a Pan Am jet, killing 270 people.
The court ruled that the seizure of clothing from the apartment in Uppsala of Palestinian Mohamed Abu Talb was legally justified and could be used in a formal investigation.
The Uppsala court, in its written ruling, said Abu Talb, 35, was suspected in Britain of murder or complicity to murder in connection with the explosion that downed Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish village last December.
Legal sources said the ruling, handed to journalists at Uppsala district court, cleared the way for Scottish police to begin questioning Abu Talb, probably after his lawyer returned from vacation Dec. 10.
The Palestinian is detained pending the outcome of a trial in Stockholm in which he is accused with three other Palestinians of bomb attacks against U.S. and Jewish targets in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Amsterdam in 1985 and 1986.
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