who could be released today
By David Brown, Charlene Sweeney and Richard Kerbaj
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi will send his private jet to collect the Lockerbie bomber and take him home to Libya if, as expected, he is released from jail today on compassionate grounds.
Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, said that he would announce at 1pm his decision on whether Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi should be freed, but he gave no indication last night as to what that decision would be.
A luxury aircraft was scheduled to collect the bomber at Glasgow airport yesterday for his triumphant return to Tripoli, but the flight was cancelled at lunchtime because Mr MacAskill’s advisers were still locked in talks after intense diplomatic pressure from America to keep al-Megrahi in jail.
The prisoner, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, called his wife, Aisha, from Greenock prison, saying that he was still uncertain about his fate. “He didn’t know when he will be released,” the mother of five told The Times. “He is happy [about the news] but he is very ill and waiting to find out what will happen to him.”
His mother said that he had called her and said that he hoped to be with her by Ramadan. Hajja Fatma, 95, told the Tripoli Post that she didn’t dare to close her front door: “I am expecting him to enter at any moment.”
Staff at Glasgow airport have been put on standby to receive the Libyan leader’s aircraft with an hour’s notice to spirit al-Megrahi out of the country.The revelation will fuel speculation that the Libyans had already been assured that al-Megrahi would be returned to Tripoli before the start of the Muslim festival of Ramadan tomorrow, even though the Scottish authorities were insisting publicly until 7pm last night that no decision had been taken. Read more here ...
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi will send his private jet to collect the Lockerbie bomber and take him home to Libya if, as expected, he is released from jail today on compassionate grounds.
Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, said that he would announce at 1pm his decision on whether Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi should be freed, but he gave no indication last night as to what that decision would be.
A luxury aircraft was scheduled to collect the bomber at Glasgow airport yesterday for his triumphant return to Tripoli, but the flight was cancelled at lunchtime because Mr MacAskill’s advisers were still locked in talks after intense diplomatic pressure from America to keep al-Megrahi in jail.
The prisoner, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, called his wife, Aisha, from Greenock prison, saying that he was still uncertain about his fate. “He didn’t know when he will be released,” the mother of five told The Times. “He is happy [about the news] but he is very ill and waiting to find out what will happen to him.”
His mother said that he had called her and said that he hoped to be with her by Ramadan. Hajja Fatma, 95, told the Tripoli Post that she didn’t dare to close her front door: “I am expecting him to enter at any moment.”
Staff at Glasgow airport have been put on standby to receive the Libyan leader’s aircraft with an hour’s notice to spirit al-Megrahi out of the country.The revelation will fuel speculation that the Libyans had already been assured that al-Megrahi would be returned to Tripoli before the start of the Muslim festival of Ramadan tomorrow, even though the Scottish authorities were insisting publicly until 7pm last night that no decision had been taken. Read more here ...
Source: Times Online
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