WORLD BRIEFING / BRITAIN
Britain’s government ratified a prisoner transfer deal with Libya that could allow the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to serve out the remainder of his sentence in the North African country.
The deal, signed in November, would allow Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi, 57, to apply to be transferred to Libya, the Foreign Office said. But Megrahi would have to agree to drop the appeal against his conviction before being eligible for a transfer.
Scottish government officials would also have to approve the move.
The former Libyan secret agent is terminally ill with prostate cancer and has just begun appealing his conviction in the Lockerbie case, a process expected to last a year.
A court in The Hague found Megrahi guilty in 2001 of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
The Dec. 21, 1988, attack killed all 259 people aboard the London-to-New York flight, along with 11 people on the ground.
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