LONDON: Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, is to be freed from a British jail on compassionate grounds, media reported Wednesday.
Megrahi is serving life with a minimum term of 27 years over the downing of Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie, which killed 270 people in 1988.
The former Libyan agent is expected to be returned to his homeland following an announcement by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill next week, the BBC and Sky News television said, without quoting sources.
A spokesman for Scotland s First Minister Alex Salmond played down the reports, saying: No decision has been taken, either on the application for compassionate release or the application under the prisoner transfer agreement and so it is entirely speculation.
The Scottish government said last month that it had received an application for his release on compassionate grounds.
In May, Libya applied for him to be transferred to his homeland under a prisoner transfer treaty between Libya and Britain.
Megrahi also launched a second appeal against his conviction earlier this year.
The 57-year-old, who lost an earlier appeal in 2002, was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year.
His lawyer says it has spread to other parts of his body and is at an advanced stage, while his wife Aisha Megrahi told AFP earlier this year that he was in danger of dying .
Megrahi was sentenced in 2001 by three Scottish judges sitting at an extraordinary tribunal in The Netherlands for blowing up Pan Am flight 103 on the night of Dec. 21, 1988, shortly after it left London for New York.
He was ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years over the bombing, Britain s worst ever terror attack.
The blast killed all 259 on board, and 11 people on the ground died due to falling debris. Many of those on the flight were Americans travelling home for the Christmas holidays.
Megrahi was visited in Greenock prison, western Scotland, by MacAskill last week for about an hour, although there was no official comment afterwards.
MacAskill has insisted that political and economic factors will not influence his decision and has spoken to US Attorney General Eric Holder plus US and British families of the Lockerbie bomb victims.
The BBC reported that the move was influenced by consensus on all sides that Megrahi should be back in Libya in time for Ramadan, the Islamic holy month next week.
The reports were welcomed by some relatives of British victims, who believe that Megrahi was wrongly convicted.
Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died on board the plane, said it had been inhumane to keep Megrahi in prison and would be to Scotland s credit if he was returned home.
Swire added on Sky News television: There are very worrying rumors circulating in Scotland that he may have been persuaded to accept the concept of compassionate release in return for withdrawing his appeal.
That would be a blow… to those who like me are seeking the truth because we would love to see the Scottish authorities get to grips with the old and new evidence in the current appeal and see whether the verdict can still be deemed safe. I don t believe that it would be.
