Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi's fate hung in the balance Wednesday as Scotland's justice minister mulled whether to release the ailing Libyan, despite fierce US opposition. According to some media reports, a decision could be taken on Megrahi - the only man convicted over the killing of 270 people when Pan Am flight 103 blew up over the town of Lockerbie in 1988 - as early as Wednesday or Thursday.
But the prospect has prompted strong opposition in the US, many of whose citizens died in the atrocity, which says Megrahi, who was convicted in 2001, must serve out the rest of his minimum 27-year sentence in a Scottish prison. "It's the policy of this administration as enunciated ... by Secretary of State (Hillary) Clinton, that this individual should serve out his term where he's serving it right now," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs Tuesday.
"We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so and we hope that they will not," Clinton herself was widely reported here as saying. Those comments came after seven US senators wrote to the Scottish government demanding that he complete his sentence in Scotland.
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is studying several options for Megrahi, jailed for killing 270 people in 1988: moving him to a Libyan jail, freeing him on compassionate grounds or keeping him in a Scottish prison. Unconfirmed, conflicting media reports suggest Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, could be freed on compassionate grounds as early as Wednesday. It is thought he could be back in Libya in time for the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan Friday.
One big obstacle preventing his return to Libya was removed Tuesday when Edinburgh's High Court ruled that he could drop his appeal against conviction. Megrahi can only be sent home under a prisoner transfer agreement when there are no legal matters involving him outstanding - and there is still an appeal by the authorities against the length of his sentence to be resolved.
But this is no bar to him being freed on compassionate grounds. MacAskill has said he will decide the issue by the end of the month. Clare Connelly, director of Glasgow University's Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit, told AFP she expected a decision "sooner rather than later".
Comments
Comments are closed.