Govt mulling Lockerbie prisoner transfer

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government is discussing the ratification of an agreement with Tripoli which could allow a Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing to be sent home to the oil-exporting North African country.

A British government source told Reuters Saturday the ratification of a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) providing a framework for the transfer of prisoners, is "being discussed at the moment."

The framework deal, which was drawn up in 2007 but has yet to be ratified by the British government, would pave the way for the transfer home of Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, who was convicted under Scottish law in 2001.

Megrahi was given a life sentence for blowing up a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie as it flew from London to New York on December 18, 1988, killing all 259 people on board, including 189 Americans. Eleven residents of the town of Lockerbie were killed by falling wreckage.

In 2003 Libya agreed to pay about $2.7 billion (1.82 billion pounds) to the families of the victims of the bombing in a move that helped Tripoli's international rehabilitation after it was long regarded by the West as an outcast state.

Megrahi's lawyers announced late last year he was suffering from terminal cancer. They also said they hoped to open a second appeal against his conviction in April this year.

The government source declined to confirm or deny a report in a Scottish newspaper that the PTA is to be ratified on April 27 and said any transfer of Megrahi would require an individual application to be made.

"The PTA doesn't actually provide for the transfer of any individual prisoner. It is a framework under which such transfers, if they were to be considered, would happen," the source said.