Lockerbie Bomber Bids to Clear Name

It's been a year since controversial release

(NEWSER) - It's been a year since Scotland made the staggering decision to free the man convicted of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and 270 souls over Lockerbie, and the US has a little anniversary message: Put him back in jail. White House counterterror chief John Brennan told Scottish officials that "Megrahi should serve out the remainder—the entirety—of his sentence in a Scottish prison." More»

(NEWSER) - The only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, has been released on compassionate grounds and will return to Libya, reports the BBC. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was sentenced to life for the murder of 270 people, but he is suffering from prostate cancer and is said to have only months to live. The Scottish regional government's decision to free Megrahi comes despite opposition from Hillary Clinton and seven US senators. More»

Scotland has final say over inmate's fate

(NEWSER) - Libya is pressing the Scottish government to OK a transfer that would allow a terminally ill Lockerbie conspirator to die at home, the BBC reports. The prisoner, who was convicted in 2001 for his role in the 1988 Pan Am bombing, would have to drop an appeal that's currently being heard if he hopes to be repatriated. The Scottish government has the final say, and victims' relatives are split over the issue. More»

Embarrassed doctor calls prognosis 'unusual'

(NEWSER) - The Libyan man convicted of 270 counts of murder for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and freed by Scotland in 2009 because he was dying of prostate cancer could live for 10 more years, the doctor whose opinion helped free him now says. Abdelbasat Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the bombing of the Pan Am flight, was believed to have 3 months to live when he was granted compassionate release so he could die in Libya. His survival is "very unusual," Karol Sikora tells the Sunday Times of London, according to MSNBC . More»

Three-month life expectancy was only an approximate, says Scot minister

(NEWSER) - Scotland caused international outrage when it released Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi to Libya on compassionate grounds because he had only three months to live. That was six months ago. While the convicted terrorist continues to call Scotland twice monthly as per the terms of his parole, Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill was scrambling to back off the 3-month window as an approximation as early as last month. Victims' relatives aren't amused. More»