The Libyan jailed for the Lockerbie bombing could be released soon on compassionate grounds after Scottish ministers were told his prostate cancer is at a terminal stage.
Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill has been given “compelling” medical reports that show Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi’s prostate cancer is in its final stages.
MacAskill took the unprecedented step of visiting Megrahi — who was jailed in 2001 for a minimum of 25 years for bombing Pam Am flight 103 in December 1988 — at Greenock prison on Wednesday after the Libyan government made two formal requests for his early release.
Megrahi is appealing against his conviction, but Libya has asked separately for his release on compassionate grounds under a prisoner transfer treaty signed by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and the British government.
It is thought that Megrahi pleaded to be allowed to die at home in Libya when he met MacAskill. The minister would not comment after leaving the prison and Megrahi’s lawyer, Tony Kelly, who was at the meeting, refused to discuss the case. Sources have indicated that Megrahi’s release on compassionate grounds is the first option being considered by MacAskill, with a decision expected before the end of this month.
Christine Grahame, the Scottish National party MSP (member of the Scottish parliament) for South of Scotland, who visited Megrahi in prison recently, said she believed the medical case for his compassionate release had become very powerful.
“He’s not responding well to chemotherapy,” she said. “He’s in the terminal stages and the prognosis is in terms of months or extended weeks; certainly not into next year. That man is desperate to be home.”
Sending Megrahi to continue his sentence in a Libyan jail under the prisoner transfer agreement would require the former Libyan sanctions buster to drop his appeal, a move he is thought to be resisting. Backed by many relatives of the British victims and senior Scottish legal figures, Megrahi has insisted he is innocent of the bombing — a claim disputed by the US authorities, the CIA and US relatives of the dead.
If it continues, his appeal will hear new evidence that casts significant doubt on the reliability and accuracy of a Maltese shopkeeper who was the lead witness, the conduct of Scottish detectives and scientific evidence about the bombing.
The Scottish government is under intense diplomatic pressure from the US government to keep Megrahi in prison. The US state department and its attorney general, Eric Holder, have formally opposed the Libyan applications.
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