A Scottish court on Friday rejected an appeal by the Libyan man jailed over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing to be freed on bail because he has cancer. Judges said Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet Al-Megrahi, jailed in 2001 over the bombing which killed 270 people, could live for years depending on how successful his treatment is.
"While the disease from which the appellant suffers is incurable and may cause his death, he is not at present suffering material pain or disability," said Lord Justice General Arthur Hamilton at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh. The 56-year-old former Libyan intelligence officer is serving life with a minimum term of 27 years for blowing up Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York over Scotland on the night of December 21, 1988.
He is seeking to have his conviction overturned, and an appeal is due to be heard next year. But his lawyers applied for his interim release after announcing last month that Megrahi has prostate cancer which has spread to other parts of his body.
The Libyan, who is being held at Greenock prison in western Scotland, voiced deep disappointment at the ruling. "I am very distressed that the court has refused me bail pending the hearing of my appeal, and the chance to spend my remaining time with my family," he said in a statement read out by his lawyer Tony Kelly.