[JURIST] A Scottish court Friday rejected the latest appeal for disclosure by defense lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi [CNN profile], convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 [BBC backgrounder] over Lockerbie, Scotland. Specifically, they were seeking access to a "missing document" [JURIST report] that allegedly contains information about the timer used to bomb Pan Am Flight 103. Al-Megrahi's lawyers were appealing a denial of access to the document by UK government officials, who said it would compromise national security and international relations. BBC News has more. AFP has additional coverage.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) [official website] granted an appeal [JURIST report] in al-Megrahi's case in June 2007 and referred it to Scotland's High Court of the Judiciary [official website] after the commission identified six grounds [press release, PDF] for a possible "miscarriage of justice" in al-Megrahi's trial and conviction. In 2003, Libya agreed to accept responsibility [US DOS press release] for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and compensate the victims' families.