Mandela to visit Lockerbie bomber

Former South African president Nelson Mandela will visit Scotland tomorrow to meet the Lockerbie bomber, it was confirmed today.

Mr Mandela is keen to see what conditions the Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi is being held under at Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow where he is serving a life sentence.

Megrahi was convicted of murder last year for smuggling a bomb aboard Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over the town of Lockerbie on December 21 1988, killing 270 people.

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: ‘‘We understand that Mr Mandela is arriving at Barlinnie to visit Al Megrahi tomorrow morning.’’

Last week Mr Mandela’s spokeswoman Zelda Lagrange told PA News that he wanted to travel to Scotland.

She said: ‘‘Mr Mandela has been closely involved in the case and he wants to see how the prisoner is doing and what the conditions in the prison are like.’’

The former president had also been in touch with Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi about Al Megrahi’s case, she added.

Mr Mandela, who spent more than 20 years in prison under the apartheid regime, played a crucial role in persuading Libya to hand over the two men suspected of involvement in the Lockerbie bombing.

The Scottish Prison Service today said it could not comment on the visit.

‘‘We don’t discuss visits to individual prisoners,’’ said a spokeswoman.

However a Strathclyde Police spokeswoman confirmed that security arrangements were in place for Mr Mandela coming to Glasgow.