Washington, Aug 20 (DPA) The US State Department has been told that a Libyan man serving a life sentence in Scotland for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people will be released, CNN reported Wednesday.
CNN cited senior State Department officials as saying that Basset al-Megrahi, 57, would be released by Scottish authorities on compassionate grounds. Al-Megrahi has been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and was not expected to live through the end of the year.
His supporters have argued that he should be allowed to return to his family in Libya. US officials have been speaking out against his release since reports out of London began emerging last week that al-Megrahi would be freed.
“It is obviously wrong to release someone who has been in prison based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime,” US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday. “We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so and hope they will not.”
Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 for his role in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and received life imprisonment.
Scottish authorities have refused to confirm any plans to free al-Megrahi, saying only that a decision has been made and will be announced Thursday. His lawyers announced Tuesday that he has dropped his appeal in the case in a sign that they were expecting him to be released.
