A Lockerbie bombing trial prosecutor has been appointed to lead the public inquiry into the deadliest atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict, the UK government has announced.
Alan Turnbull, now a senior Scottish judge, will oversee hearings into the Omagh bombing in August 1998, which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. A total of 220 others were injured.
"Lord Turnbull's long-standing judicial career and his previous experience of working on terrorism cases will provide the highest levels of knowledge and professionalism," said UK Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.
"I have no doubt that Lord Turnbull will bring to the inquiry the required rigour, independence and impartiality, and I am grateful to him for accepting this job."
The independent inquiry, announced by Mr Heaton-Harris in February, will look into whether the bombing could have been prevented.
The bombing was carried out by dissident republican paramilitary group the Real IRA, which was opposed to the peace deal signed just months earlier to end violence over British rule in Northern Ireland.
Mr Turnbull said he was "honoured" to be appointed to the Omagh inquiry and promised an "independent and robust" examination of the case "in order to establish the truth".
In 2000, he was one of two senior lawyers who prosecuted Libyans Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah for the 21 December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie.
All 259 people on board perished, along with 11 people in the Scottish town.
Mr Fhimah was acquitted by three Scottish judges sitting at a neutral court in the Netherlands. Megrahi was convicted and jailed for life.
