Clinton: 'Absolutely wrong' to free Lockerbie bomber

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton piled more pressure on the Scottish government today over whether to free the Lockerbie bomber by issuing a fresh call to keep him locked up.

Mrs Clinton said it was “absolutely wrong” to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, adding: “We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so and we hope that they will not.”

Megrahi – who has terminal prostate cancer – successfully dropped his appeal against conviction yesterday amid mounting speculation he could be moved to Libya within days on compassionate grounds.

Mrs Clinton has already called the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to say Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland.

After the bomber’s appeal hearing, she told US reporters: “I just think it is absolutely wrong to release someone who has been imprisoned based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime.”

Three appeal judges in Edinburgh heard Megrahi’s condition had worsened “very considerably” in recent days.

The successful bid to drop the second appeal against conviction removes one potential obstacle to the return of Megrahi – who was convicted in 2001 of the 1988 airliner bombing which killed 270.

Mr MacAskill cannot agree to return him to Libya under a prisoner transfer treaty if any legal proceedings are outstanding.

Yesterday’s ruling removes some red tape although a Crown appeal against Megrahi‘s sentence is still outstanding.

All 259 people on the Pan Am Flight 103 Boeing 747, and 11 people on the ground, were killed in Britain’s biggest terrorist atrocity.