Bomber ‘likely to die before his appeal decision’
THE Lockerbie bomber could die from cancer before his appeal against conviction is completed, it emerged yesterday.
High Court judge Lord Wheatley, one of a panel considering Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi’s case, recently underwent heart surgery. The High Court in Edinburgh was yesterday told that he will not return to the bench for at least two months.
Former Libyan secret service officer Megrahi, 56, is serving a minimum 27 years at Gateside Prison, Greenock, for blowing up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew and 11 local residents.
Megrahi has terminal prostate cancer, which has spread to other parts of his body, and the Libyan government has applied for him to be repatriated to die at home.
His QC, Margaret Scott, told the court: “There is a very real risk that my client will die before this appeal is adjudicated.”