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Latest update: 21/08/2009
- Libya - Lockerbie bombing - Scotland - terrorism
Court lets Libyan Lockerbie bomber drop appeal
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, has moved one step closer to being released from a British jail after Scotland's top court accepted a request to withdraw his appeal against conviction.
REUTERS - Scotland’s high court has accepted a request by Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, to drop an appeal against his conviction, a move that could hasten Megrahi’s release and return to Libya.
Lord Hamilton, Scotland’s most-senior judge, said he had agreed to Megrahi’s request to withdrawal his appeal, but said there were still legal hurdles to be negotiated before the appeal process could be completely dropped.
The court is expected to meet again in three weeks’ time to finalise the closing of the appeal process.
Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of plotting the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. The Libyan, a former intelligence agent, was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
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Comments (1)
Great Britain gets its grrr back.
There's quite a few IRA terrorists that the UK would like to see extradited from the US. But because the IRA terrorists have support from the likes of Senator Ted Kennedy, et, al, in order to secure the Irish-American vote, the US has not played it straight, or ratified in Congress, the extradition treaty signed in good expectation by the UK, and have used that treaty in a very heavy handed and unjust manner against the Nat-West Three and Gary McKinnon, for example. Thus the UK must look after its own interests, and Abdel Basset al-Megrahi gets to go home again.