Libyans in talks with MacAskill about fate of Megrahi

Libyan Government officials visited St Andrew's House yesterday for final discussions with Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill ahead of his final decision on the fate of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

The six-strong delegation from Tripoli then travelled to Greenock Prison to see Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who is serving a 27-year sentence for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988, which left 270 people dead.

The prisoner is appealing his conviction but has now been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In May the Libyan Government applied for the prisoner transfer of Megrahi under a controversial agreement signed with Westminster. Last week Mr MacAskill met Megrahi in prison.

However, for that transfer to go ahead Megrahi would have to first drop his appeal, unless Mr MacAskill decided to release him on compassionate grounds, which could permit the appeal to continue while Megrahi returned to die in his homeland.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that a delegation from the Libyan Government met the Justice Secretary today as part of the continuing process started in June to hear representations from relevant parties in relation to Mr Al Megrahi's applications for release. This was a follow- up meeting to help clarify a number of issues and the Justice Secretary will now finalise his considerations over the next few weeks."

Yesterday's was the third meeting between Libyan representatives and the Justice Secretary, who has also met US Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as representatives of the US and UK dead from the flight and those from Lockerbie itself.

Megrahi wants to clear his name through the appeal, which began in April, but he is suffering from terminal prostate cancer and it is not known if he will survive the lengthy legal process.

Despite the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referring the case for a fresh appeal two years ago, the process is barely under way.

[This is the text of an article in today's edition of The Herald by the paper's Scottish Political Correspondent, Robbie Dinwoodie. A report on the visit is also to be found in The Sun.]