Lockerbie bomber loses freedom bid

Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi failed in his bid to be freed on bail today after judges in Edinburgh rejected his application to be freed on 'compassionate grounds',

It emerged last month that the 56-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and the disease had spread to other parts of his body

Al-Megrahi applied for interim release from jail pending the outcome of an appeal against conviction. But judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal rejected the application from his defence team today.

Al-Megrahi is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 which led to the deaths of 270 people.

He lost an appeal in 2002, but was given a fresh chance to clear his name in June last year when the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) referred his case back to appeal judges for a second time.

His appeal is due to be heard next year.

At a hearing last week, appeal judges in Edinburgh were told a “compelling case” existed for releasing al-Megrahi on bail pending his appeal.

The court heard he was terminally ill and should be released on compassionate grounds.

Today's judgment said: “The critical question, as the court sees it, is, against the background of the atrocity of which the applicant stands convicted, whether the applicant’s health, present and prospective, is such as the court should on compassionate grounds now admit him to bail.

“On balance the court is not persuaded, on the information before it, that it should.

“While the disease from which the appellant suffers is incurable and may cause his death, he is not at present suffering material pain or disability.”