A judge at the appeal of the Lockerbie bomber today raised questions over a key part of the evidence which led to the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.
Lord Osborne said he found it "hard to follow" the trial judges' reasoning when they ruled that the bomb which blew up Pan Am flight 103 was contained in an unaccompanied bag which started its journey in Malta.
Mr Alan Turnbull QC, for the Crown, admitted the Maltese connection was a critical piece of the prosecution's case, but he insisted there was enough circumstantial evidence to prove it.
Al Megrahi's defence team has cast doubt on the Crown's account of how the bomb infiltrated the baggage handling system and told the court it was more likely to have been introduced at Frankfurt or Heathrow.
Mr William Taylor QC, for the defence, has produced fresh testimony from a security guard who told lawyers he had found evidence of a break-in at Heathrow airport on the night of December 20th, 1988. The following evening Pan Am flight 103 exploded in the skies over Lockerbie, killing 270 people.
Today Lord Osborne, one of five judges hearing the appeal at the Scottish Court in Holland, quizzed Mr Turnbull repeatedly over the bomb's journey, which saw it carried on two different flights before being loaded onto flight 103 at Heathrow.
He said: "It is quite difficult, rationally, to follow how the court took the steps it did in saying we don't know how it got on to the flight, but it must have been there."
Mr Turnbull, meanwhile, has dismissed the defence's claims about Heathrow being a more likely point of infiltration as "entirely subjective comment."
The appeal hearing continues tomorrow.
PA