Minister MacAskill told a news conference, “He’s a dying man, he is terminally ill. My decision is that he returns home to die”. Al-Megrahi has terminal prostate cancer and has less than three months to live. Less than an hour after the announcement, al-Megrahi left Greenock prison and was taken to Glasgow airport, where a jet was waiting to take him home to Libya.
Media speculation about Megrahi’s release became feverish last week when the former Libyan secret service officer withdrew his appeal against his conviction. The justice ministers decision was widely expected and many Scottish relatives of the victims were in favour of his release. However, the move was condemned by the US; a White House statement said, “The United States deeply regrets the decision by the Scottish executive”.
After years of United Nations sanctions against Libya, Tripoli finally handed over al-Megrahi and his co-accused Al Amin Khalfa Fhimah in 1999. They tried by a special Scottish court set up in Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. In 2001, the court convicted al-Megrahi and sentenced him to 27 years in jail. His co-accused was acquitted.
