US Lockerbie families may fight to stop Megrahi going home

Published on Friday 17 July 2009 22:18

FAMILIES of Lockerbie victims in the United States might apply for a judicial review if the Scottish Government decides Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi should be sent home to Libya.

The possibility will be raised by the US-based organisation Victims of Pan Am 103 Group when its board meets next week in New Jersey.

Its president, Frank Duggan, a Washington lawyer, said there would be "uproar" if justice secretary Kenny MacAskill let Megrahi return home under a prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Libya.

Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, is serving life for killing 270 people in the 1989 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Mr Duggan confirmed that a judicial review would be on the agenda when the group's board meets on Monday.

He said families of the US victims were assuming that MacAskill would "do the right thing" and decide that Megrahi should serve out his life sentence in a Scottish jail.

But he added: "The board is going to meet next Monday in New Jersey, and we could take a vote at the board on this issue."

In March 2002, Megrahi's first appeal against conviction was turned down by another five Scottish judges. He has now been granted a second appeal, which is taking place at the moment.

Under the terms of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement brokered by Tony Blair and Muammar al-Gaddhafi, Megrahi would have to drop that new appeal in order to return home.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said it "would not be appropriate to comment" while Mr MacAskill was considering representations on the prisoner transfer agreement.

A spokesman for the Crown Office said: "The decision in relation to prison transfer application from the Libyan authorities is wholly a matter for the Scottish ministers. The Crown has no role in this process."