Scotland’s high court has agreed that a Libyan can drop his appeal against conviction for the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in 1988, a move that could speed his return home.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, 57, was convicted in 2001 of plotting the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which killed all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. He was sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in prison.
Lord Arthur Hamilton, Scotland’s most senior judge, said he had accepted Megrahi’s request to withdraw his long-standing appeal, but said there were other legal hurdles to be negotiated before the appeal process could be completely closed.
The court is expected to meet again in three weeks’ time to finalise the process, which depends on Scotland’s judicial authorities dropping their own appeal against Megrahi’s original sentence, which they saw as too lenient.
The former Libyan intelligence agent is now suffering from terminal prostate cancer and has made a request to be released on compassionate grounds in order to allow him to return to Libya and see his family before he dies.
At the same time, Britain and Libya have signed a prisoner transfer agreement that could allow Megrahi to be sent back to Libya to serve out the remainder of his sentence.
People with pending legal appeals cannot be transferred to another country under British law.
Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill was expected to meet Cabinet colleagues in Aberdeen yesterday. A potential compassionate parole for the Libyan is reportedly on the agenda.
A judicial review of al-Megrahi’s case two years ago raised serious questions about the evidence used to convict him, spurring his appeal.
The BBC and Sky News reported last week that MacAskill likely would free al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds in time for Ramadan, which begins on Saturday.
That would allow him to fly back to Libya a free man.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has specifically asked MacAskill to ensure that al-Megrahi stays in prison. At the same time Libya has warned of serious economic fallout if he is not released.
The Times, citing unnamed senior sources, however, said on Monday that the Scottish government appeared to have buckled under pressure from Washington and abandoned plans to release him this week.
The issue sparked a political row as Scottish opposition parties slammed the government’s handling of the matter and called for parliament to be recalled to debate the case.
But officials told the Guardian newspaper yesterday that MacAskill would make his decision “sooner rather than later,” and was making it his “clear priority over the next few days.”
Relatives of those who died are split on whether Megrahi should be set free.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS