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Lockerbie bomber seeks to drop second appeal

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Convicted Pan Am Flight 103 bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi on Friday asked the Scottish High Court of the Judiciary to allow him to withdraw the second appeal of his 2001 conviction. Megrahi, recently diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, is seeking a transfer to his native Libya, a process that cannot be completed while legal actions are pending. Libya had petitioned the Scottish government to transfer Megrahi in May, as part of a prisoner transfer agreement with the UK. Speculation that Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill would honor an August request that Megrahi be released on "compassionate grounds" to serve the remainder of his minimum 27 year sentence in Libya prompted criticism from US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Syracuse University and families of the victims. The Scottish Government urged restraint, saying that MacAskill had not yet made a decision on the matter. In November, the High Court denied Megrahi's request to be released on bail during the appeals process. Lawyers for al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, were denied access in March 2008 to a "missing document," that they had sought in appealing his conviction. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) granted an appeal in al-Megrahi's case in June 2007 and referred it the High Court after the commission identified six grounds for a possible "miscarriage of justice" in his trial and conviction. In 2003, Libya made its final compensation payment to a US fund for victims' families in November 2008 after agreeing to accept responsibility for the 1988 airline bombing that killed all 259 on board, including 180 Americans.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 14, 2009 (boomark / email).