Lockerbie bomb man ‘could be freed’
Updated on 13 August 2009
The only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing could be freed within days.
Abdel Baset al Megrahi, 57, was sentenced to life for his role in blowing up Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, killing 259 people on board, and a further 11 people on the ground.
Despite a storm of anger from the relatives of those who died, the Scottish Government is expected to release the Libyan on compassionate grounds because he is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.
The Scottish government insisted that no decision had yet been made on whether Megrahi would be released from prison and returned home as early as next week.
Libya has repeatedly lobbied for Megrahi's release most recently at a meeting in Italy between Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last month.
"No decision has been made on applications under the prisoner transfer agreement or compassionate release by Mr al Megrahi," the spokesman said after British media reported Megrahi was to released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.
Scottish National party MSP Christine Grahame Bert Ammerman, who's brother was killed on board Pan Am 103, debated whether Megrahi should be freed on Channel 4 News.
A spokesman said Scotland's justice minister hoped "to reach a decision this month".
A Libyan official who did not want to be identified said in Tripoli that a deal for his release was "in the last steps", but added: "We have an agreement between the two sides not to make any statement until he (Megrahi) comes home."
Libyan authorities made an application in July on behalf of Megrahi asking for him to be released on compassionate grounds and allowed to return home. Scotland's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill met Megrahi to discuss the application last week in Greenock prison where he is being held.
A spokesman for Brown would not confirm or deny reports claiming Megrahi's release and said that the case was a matter for the Scottish government since he was convicted under Scottish law.
Four years after Megrahi's conviction, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay about $2.7bn in compensation to the victims' families - a move that helped clear the way for the lifting of sanctions and the restoration of Libya's ties with western states.
Mixed reaction to bomber release
Families of those killed in the Lockerbie air disaster have had mixed reactions to claims about Megrahi's release.
The mother of an American woman killed in the Lockerbie bombing reacted angrily to the news. Susan Cohen, whose only child 20-year-old Theodora was one of 35 Syracuse University students on Pan Am flight 103, said any suggestion that Megrahi should be freed on compassionate grounds was "vile".
"Any letting out of Megrahi would be a disgrace. It makes me sick, and if there is a compassionate release then I think that is vile," she said.
But some British relatives welcomed the possibility. Dr Jim Swire, who lost his 23-year-old daughter Flora, said it would be to Scotland's credit if the Libyan was released as be belives Megrahi was wrongly convicted.
"I am someone who does not believe he is guilty," he said.
"The sooner he is back with his family the better. On reasonable human grounds it is the right thing to do and if it's true that he is to be returned on compassionate grounds then that would be more to Scotland's credit than returning him under the prisoner transfer agreement.
"It would mean that he can go to his family who he adores and live the last of his days on this planet with them."
Martin Cadman lost his son Bill, aged 32, in the disaster.
He said: "I hope it is true as it's something we've been wanting for a long time.
"I think he is innocent and even if he were not innocent I still think it's certainly the right thing to do on compassionate grounds."
Pamela Dix, from UK Families Flight 103, said there had been a "lack of justice" for those killed in the tragedy.
Ms Dix, whose brother Peter was killed in the atrocity, told BBC2's Newsnight she was "baffled" by much of the evidence in the trial that led to Megrahi's conviction.
