The only man found guilty in the 1988 airplane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, is dropping his appeal, his lawyers said on Friday — removing an obstacle to his possible transfer to Libya but disappointing activists who believe he is innocent.
Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi’s lawyer, Tony Kelly, said his client, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, filed papers to drop his appeal because his health had deteriorated.
“His condition has taken a significant turn for the worse in recent weeks,” the lawyer said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
British broadcasters reported this week, without citing sources, that al-Megrahi had been given just months to live and would be released early from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.
The former Libyan secret service agent was convicted for the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 270 people — most of them Americans. It was the deadliest terrorist attack ever committed in Britain.
The US has firmly objected to reports that al-Megrahi might be released.
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had called Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill in the past day and “expressed strongly” the US view that “al-Megrahi should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland for his part in the bombing of the Pan Am 103 flight.”
Crowley said that US Attorney General Eric Holder had also called MacAskill.
The US Justice Department later said the call happened last month.
“Our interest is justice, and our interest is the commitment that we made to the families” of the victims, Crowley said.
“He was brought to trial. He had a fair trial. He was convicted,” he said.
“He’s serving his time. And we think he should stay in jail,” he added.
The Scottish government said it has yet to decide on his request for early release. They are also considering allowing al-Megrahi to serve the rest of his sentence in Libya.
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