Lockerbie campaigner says he fears for safety of al-Megrahi

Dr Jim Swire, who has been a spokesman for UK Families Flight 103 which represented British relatives, said he was concerned US special forces could kill Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

Megrahi, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer, was released from a Scottish prison in August 2009 on compassionate grounds, after serving nearly eight years of a 27-year sentence for killing 270 people.

Of those, 259 victims were on Pan Am Flight 103, while 11 residents killed by falling wreckage after it exploded over Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway, on December 21, 1988.

Dr Swire’s daughter Flora was killed in the bombing.

The former GP, who lives in Chipping Campden and believes Megrahi is innocent, said: “I am worried for him. I can just see the unit they sent to kill Osama bin Laden being sent to extract Megrahi.

“Presumably, they wouldn’t extract him but kill him on the spot.”

Dr Swire said he was stepping down from frontline campaigning as a group of British lawyers, including QCs, were keen to look at evidence from Megrahi’s trial.

“There’s a whole cohort of senior lawyers who are keen to get involved,” he added.

Dr Swire also said the emergence of the Justice For Megrahi campaign group was another reason for his decision.

Dr Swire continued: “Both I and my family feel it’s time to leave it to younger hands.

“Right from day one we felt that we wanted to try and force something good to come out of something so evil as this.

“In the early years that took the form of hoping to improve relations between Libya and Britain and that did seem to be working.”

He was speaking as a poll for the Sunday Times showed 48 per cent of 1,121 adults questioned in the UK said Megrahi should resume his sentence in a Scottish prison as the two-year anniversary of his release looms.