Premiership of Gordon Brown into further talks over the issue. Finally, after a Commons Home Affairs Committee meeting between campaigners, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office on 19 May, Brown announced to the House of Commons on 20 May that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would make a statement on the issue the following day. Smith subsequently announced that all Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British Army before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain. In the days following the release and high-profile return to Libya of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in August 2009, speculation
Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission stemmed from the dispute between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Libya concerning arrangements for the trial of two Libyans accused of causing the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988. The dispute was resolved on the basis of legally binding United Nations Security Council Resolution 1192 of 27 August 1998. UN Security Council resolution 1192 "welcomed" "the initiative for the trial of the two [Libyan] persons charged with the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 ... before a Scottish court sitting