In November 1994 , President Nelson Mandela offered South Africa as a neutral venue for the trial but this was rejected by the then British prime minister , John Major . A further three years elapsed until Mandela 's offer was repeated to Major 's successor , Tony Blair , when the president visited London in July 1997 and again at the 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( CHOGM ) in Edinburgh in October 1997 . At the latter meeting , Mandela warned that " no one nation should be complainant , prosecutor and judge " in the Lockerbie case
1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1997
Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial