A former Libyan intelligence agent jailed for 27 years over the 1988 bombing of a United States airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, has won the right to appeal, legal authorities said on Monday.
Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was sentenced last November to a minimum 27-year prison term, which the public prosecution is set to appeal for being unduly lenient.
A trio of Scottish judges imposed the sentence on Megrahi (51) following his conviction in January 2001 by a special Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands, for murdering 270 people.
Pan Am Flight 103, en route to New York from Frankfurt and London, blew up in mid-air over Lockerbie, southwest Scotland, in December 1988, killing all 259 people on board and another 11 on the ground.
In September last year, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay $2,7-billion in compensation.
Libya has also reaped diplomatic benefits from the announcement in December that it was abandoning any attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Its return to the diplomatic mainstream was marked in March when British Prime Minister Tony Blair held landmark talks in Tripoli with Libya’s leader Moammar Gadaffi, who also last month visited Brussels in his first trip outside Africa or the Middle East in 15 years. – Sapa-AFP