Lockerbie bomber Megrahi drops appeal
Updated on 18 August 2009
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Libyan found guilty of plotting the Lockerbie bombing which left 270 people dead, is allowed to drop his appeal at the high court in Edinburgh.
That could allow Megrahi, who is terminally ill and who was jailed for life for the 1988 bombing, to be freed on compassionate grounds or sent back to Libya to serve his sentence there.
The Scottish justice minister says he will decide within the next few days.
But seven leading American senators have urged him to keep Megrahi behind bars.
Scotland's justice secretary Kenny MacAskill will decide in the next two weeks whether to release him or send him back to Libya to serve the rest of his sentence.
From Edinburgh, Julian Rush reports.
