FORMER South African president Nelson Mandela plans to visit the Libyan
secret agent imprisoned in Glasgow for planting the bomb on a plane that
killed 270 people over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, a Sunday
paper said.
Supporters of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi are hoping that a visit can be
arranged as early as next month, although a representative for Mandela (83)
told the Sunday Times it may be delayed by the former leader’s ill
health until next year.
A lawyer close to the case told the paper: ”Mandela has
expressed a wish to visit Megrahi in Barlinnie prison. However he is not in
the best of health so we are not sure when he can make the journey.”
Al-Megrahi has been told that Mandela, who spent 27 years in Robben Island
prison for his opposition to South Africa’s former apartheid regime, feels
sympathy for him, according to the paper.
”He feels an affinity with the man who may have been wrongly accused and
imprisoned,” the lawyer told the paper. Al-Megrahi is serving a minimum of
20 years for planting the bomb.
His appeal was rejected in March and the criminal investigation of the
bombing has been ended. – Sapa