Lockerbie appeal dropped

Scottish judges yesterday accepted an application by the Lockerbie bomber to drop his second appeal against conviction, a move which clears the way for his possible release or transfer to a Libyan jail.

The permission of the Edinburgh High Court was required before proceedings by Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi could be formally abandoned.

The decision yesterday came at the same time that the Scottish Justice Secretary is considering a request by Megrahi's lawyers for his release on compassionate grounds, given he is suffering from terminal cancer.

News of Megrahi's possible release or transfer to Libya was not welcomed in the US. Seven US senators yesterday urged the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to make Megrahi serve his sentence in Scotland.

The Maltese government, which has a stake in the matter seeing as Malta stands accused of having been the place from where the bomb left, has so far declined to comment on the issue.

The 57-year-old Libyan is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum of 27 years after being convicted in 2001 of the 1988 bombing of a Pan-Am airliner over Scotland which killed 270 people. The majority were US citizens.

Megrahi's lawyers have said his medical condition has now reached the terminal stage.

The Lockerbie bomber's request to drop the appeal he fought so hard to gain was described as a political deal by a legal expert appointed by the UN to monitor the trial.

Talking to The Sunday Times, Hans Koechler said he was of the opinion that oil interests and joint security considerations had prevented the truth from emerging.

If Mr Megrahi remains convicted, the accusation that the bomb left from Malta would stand, he said.

This view was also echoed by the Scottish legal expert who was the architect of the original trial in the Netherlands in 2001, Robert Black, who termed the original verdict "a disgrace".

The news was welcomed by some British relatives of the victims who repeatedly said they did not believe Mr Al Megrahi was the bomber. But a chorus of disapproval was raised in the US where families of the American victims said the request was unacceptable. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined senior US officials in pressing Scotland not to release the Libyan.