One Year Later, Montville Father Still Looking For Answers About Lockerbie Bomber's Release

New Jersey senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg are holding a news conference at the Federal courthouse in Newark today, the one-year anniversary of the Pan Am Flight 103 bomber's release from Scotish prision.

The bombing, named the "Lockerbie Bombing" due to the town in which the plane crashed, killed 270 people in 1988, including Montville resident John Patrick Flynn.

The conference is the latest in the two senators' efforts to discover the reasoning and situations revolving around the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi. Jack Flynn, Montville resident and father of John Patrick, believes the prisoner's release is the result of a business deal that gave Scotland access to an oil well outside of Libya.

"We've heard that BP is involved, but we have no proof," he said. "If it is true, they should admit to it, that BP used its influence to get [al-Megrahi] released. We hope the truth comes out as to why he was released."

For Flynn, the two senators' crusade for information regarding the prisoner's release is a welcome addition to his own personal quest for information regarding the incident that took his son's life.

"We've been fighting for justice for 21 years, and Lautenberg has been with us for 21 years," he said. "We got a fair trial, we were at the trial every day and we knew that [al-Megrahi] did it. There was plenty of evidence against him and he got convicted. Now he should stay in jail. He killed 270 people. We've got to keep fighting, because if we back off, the government will back off."

Lautenberg and Menendez attempted to hold hearings regarding the 1988 bombing, but were forced to postpone when BP's outgoing CEO said he was too busy to testify in front of the Senate foreign relations committee.