Transatlantic split over plans to free Libyan jailed for Lockerbie bombing
Libyan could be released next week, sources say
Speculation intensifies despite US opposition
The reconstructed remains of Pan Am flight 103 lie in a warehouse on January 15, 2008 in Farnborough, England. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
A final decision on whether the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing will be allowed to return to
Libya is expected early next week, but the
United States today warned that it would be against such a move.
The Scottish justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, however, is thought to have decided in principle to send Abdelbasset al-Megrahi, who was convicted in 2001 of killing 270 people in the bomb attack on Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland in December 1988, back to Libya.
MacAskill is expected to get a final report from his officials by Monday on whether to set Megrahi free on compassionate grounds, because his terminal prostate cancer is now at an advanced and final stage, or to transfer him to Libya to serve the rest of his 27-year minimum sentence there.
It is understood that justice department officials believe there is a powerful case in favour of granting Megrahi early release. Megrahi's supporters say he has only a few months to live and other sources say MacAskill has been given compelling medical evidence about the Libyan's health.
However, Scottish ministers faced renewed demands today from the US government, opposition politicians and the relatives of American victims of the attack for Megrahi to remain in Greenock prison.
Speculation that Megrahi, 57, might be freed intensified after it emerged that Scottish government officials had asked the Libyans to prepare for Megrahi to fly home as early as next week.
Meanwhile, the Scottish parole board has been asked for its views on his early release.
On Thursday, MacAskill insisted he had yet to reach a decision, but he confirmed that a decision was imminent. He said discussions with the Obama administration in Washington including the US attorney general, Eric Holder, with senior Libyan diplomats, and with the victims' families in the US and the UK had been concluded.
"This is a matter of great concern, not simply in Scotland but around the world. I have to take time to make sure that the correct decision is made but, for the record, no decision has been made by me, I am currently reflecting," he said.
However, MacAskill is under heavy political pressure to keep Megrahi in Greenock prison and the US has made clear its wish that he continues to serve his sentence in Scotland.
A US official said: "We maintain our long-standing position that Megrahi should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland for his part in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103."
Dan Maffei, congressman for Syracuse, New York, said: "I am shocked and disappointed that the Scottish government would consider releasing a known terrorist for any reason. I can't imagine what the families of the victims are going through." The attack killed 35 students from Syracuse university.
The outcome of Megrahi's legally and politically complex case remains uncertain.
As well as requesting his release on compassionate grounds, the Libyans have asked for his repatriation to serve his sentence in a Libyan jail under a prisoner transfer agreement that was signed by the former prime minister, Tony Blair, and the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Officials and legal sources insist that Megrahi's transfer to a Libyan prison is still an option, and speculation is growing in Edinburgh and in London that Megrahi might drop his appeal against his conviction for the bomb attack, clearing the way for his transfer to Tripoli.
The appeal may get an unexpected hearing next week. The Libyan government may be weighing whether to continue with the appeal if Megrahi is to be released.
"Negotiations as such have been concluded and what I am now doing is considering my position," MacAskill said. "I am required to await the submission of some documentation from civil servants, and thereafter I will make my decision.
"I am conscious that Mr Megrahi is a very sick man and indeed matters are very sensitive and sore to those individuals who have lost their nearest and dearest. So I will do so as quickly as I can."
Megrahi: in the dock
A few items stained with the residue of a semtex explosion were found in the debris on the ground after the Lockerbie crash. One piece of fabric bore the label Malta Trading Company.
One shop that sold that firm's clothing was Tony Gauci's Mary's House store in the port of Sliema, Malta.
Gauci, described by the judges as a reliable witness, said he had remembered selling the clothing to an Arabic man a few weeks before Christmas 1988 because that person had seemed to select the clothing with little thought for style or sizing.
The clothing had been bought on 7 December, the day Abdelbasset al-Megrahi visited Malta, staying at a hotel close to Mary's House.
"If he was the purchaser of this miscellaneous collection of garments, it is not difficult to infer he must have been aware of the purpose for which they were being bought," said the judges.
On the day before the Lockerbie bombing, Megrahi, a senior official in the JSO (the Libyan intelligence agency) flew back to Luqa airport in Malta on a false passport using the name Abdusamad.
The judges were convinced by the prosecutors that a suitcase holding the bomb began its journey on an Air Malta flight at Luqa. It was tagged for onward transfer to Pan Am 103, travelling from Frankfurt to New York via Heathrow.
Megrahi's association with Edwin Bollier whose company designed the explosive timing devices (and who has denied any involvement in the bombing) and with members of the JSO, who bought timers of the kind used in the bomb, "does fit together to form a real and convincing pattern", the judges said.
Megrahi was found guilty of planting the bomb on the jet in Malta that connected with flight 103.
Should Abdelbasset al-Megrahi be freed? Agent that blew up plane over Lockerbie Scotland.
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