Libyan to serve `at least 27 years` for Lockerbie bombing
IRNA
London, Nov 24, IRNA -- Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi must serve at least 27 years in jail for the 1988 Lockerbie air disaster, three judges at the High Court in Glasgow ruled Monday. The same judges, Lords Sutherland, McLean and Coulsfield, who originally convicted al Megrahi of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish village at a special Scottish court in the Netherlands in 2001, originally recommended that he served a minimum of 20 years. A change in Scottish human rights laws meant that the 51 year old Libyan, who is currently appealing against his conviction, had been brought back to court to clarify the period of his sentence. Al Megrahi`s lawyer Margaret Scott described how her client still maintained he was innocent of the bombing. "He serves his sentence in a foreign environment in solitary confinement and he is utterly alone," she said about his detention in Glasgow`s Barlinnie prison. His conviction of murdering a total of 270 people was brought about by a special arrangement to hold the trial in a third country under Scottish law. At the 2001 trial, which lasted 84 days and cost an estimated Dlrs 90 million, al Megrahi`s Libyan colleague Amin Khalifa Fhimah was found not guilty of any charges. HC/212 End
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