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Lockerbie Bomber Gets Six-Week Extension for Appeal Preparation
Lawyers acting on behalf of Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi have been given six more weeks to prepare their appeal against the conviction of their client for the 1988 mid-air bombing of a civilian flight to New York, a court official said on Monday.
"The lawyers have been granted an extension of six weeks from the 21st of March," the court official told the press at Edinburgh 's High Court of Justice, according to reports reaching here.
Al-Megrahi was convicted on January 31 this year of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie and killing 259 people on board and 11 others on the ground. The Libyan was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation by the court that he serve at least 20 years in a Glasgow jail.
Co-accused, Libyan Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, was acquitted and has already returned to Libya.
Al-Megrahi announced on February 7 that he would appeal against the conviction. He was given a statutory six weeks from that date to provide full written reasons for the appeal.
A Scottish judge will study the written reasons and then decide whether to grant appeal. If an appeal is granted, a full hearing before a panel of five Scottish judges will take place, probably in the latter half of this year.
The hearing can take place at Camp Zeist of the Netherlands, where the Lockerbie trial was held and it can also be held in Scotland.
The Lockerbie trial took more than 11 years to investigate and prepare and the court procedure took less than expected when the defense team abruptly concluded its case after calling only three witnesses to testify.
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