Scotland's criminal appeals body said Thursday that it will review the case of a Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, as his family tries posthumously to clear his name.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said it has decided "that it is in the interests of justice" to review the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi over the bombing, which killed 270 people.

Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. Many victims were American college students flying home for Christmas.

Al-Megrahi lost one appeal and abandoned another before being freed in 2009 on compassionate grounds. He died of cancer in 2012, still protesting his innocence.

Review Commission chief executive Gerard Sinclair said al-Megrahi abandoned his second appeal "as he held a genuine and reasonable belief that such a course of action would result in him being able to return home to Libya, at a time when he was suffering from terminal cancer." He said "on that basis" the commission considered it right to review the conviction.

The review commission will decide whether to hand the case to an appeals court.

Al-Megrahi's family is seeking to overturn the murder conviction, citing concerns about the evidence, including doubts about the timer alleged to have detonated the bomb.

Family lawyer Aamer Anwar welcomed the decision, saying "the reputation of the Scottish law has suffered both at home and internationally because of widespread doubts about the conviction of Mr. al-Megrahi."

The Lockerbie judgment stated: "From the evidence which we have discussed so far, we are satisfied that it has been proved that the primary suitcase containing the explosive device was dispatched from Malta, passed through Frankfurt and was loaded onto PA103 at Heathrow. It is, as we have said, clear that, with one exception the clothing in the primary suitcase was the clothing purchased in Mr Gauci's shop on 7 December 1988. The purchaser was, on Mr Gauci's evidence, a Libyan. The trigger for the explosion was an MST-13 timer of the single solder mask variety. A substantial quantity of such timers had been supplied to Libya. We cannot say that it is impossible that the clothing might have been taken from Malta, united somewhere with a timer from some source other than Libya and introduced into the airline baggage system at Frankfurt or Heathrow."