Camp Zeist, Netherlands ? A Scottish appeals court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction of a former Libyan intelligence agent for bombing Pan Am Flight 103, a ruling that increases pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to admit responsibility and compensate the victims’ families.

The court’s rejection of the appeal by Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi brought to a close a 13-year police and judicial saga, but left unanswered the question of who ordered the bombing that killed 259 people on the plane and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. Most of those killed were Americans.

The five-judge court ruled unanimously that the prosecution’s circumstantial case against al-Megrahi was convincing, and said that the defense had offered no arguments to undermine the conviction.

“None of the grounds of appeal is well-founded,” said the presiding judge, Lord Cullen. “The appeal will accordingly be refused.”

Al-Megrahi was expected to be transferred within hours to a prison in Scotland from Camp Zeist, where he has been held since his extradition on April 5, 1999.

In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that with the final verdict, Libya should now pay compensation to families of the Pan Am 103 victims as called for under U.N. resolutions.

“The president expects Libya to fulfill those obligations,” Fleischer said. “The court has spoken. It’s time for Libya to act.”