Senators call for Megrahi investigation

FOUR US senators are pressuring the US State Department to push the UK to investigate the circumstances of last year's release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie airliner bombing.

By The Newsroom

Published 13th Jul 2010, 21:05 BST

Updated 13th Jul 2010, 21:05 BST

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison in September after doctors said the cancer-stricken man had only three months to live.

A doctor now says Megrahi could live for another decade.

Megrahi had served eight years of a life sentence for bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988 as it flew from London to New York. The bombing killed 270 people, most of them American.

Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand, Charles Schumer, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez requested the investigation in a letter to the UK's ambassador to the US dated last Wednesday.

"The decision by the Scottish government to reject our request to re-investigate the decision to release this terrorist raises more suspicions as to whether there was a rotten deal between the United Kingdom and the Libya government," Mr Schumer said.

In his response, ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald said due process was followed.

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