London, Aug 18 (DPA) The Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in which 270 people died moved a step closer to being freed from jail Tuesday as a court in Scotland accepted his bid to drop an appeal against his life sentence passed nine years ago.
Judges at the High Court in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, agreed to the request of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to abandon his appeal after hearing that the 57-year-old, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, would not have long to live.

Recent moves to free al-Megrahi, convicted to life in 2001 for Britain’s biggest terrorist atrocity, have led to tensions with the US government which has made clear it wants him to serve out his minimum 27-year-term in a jail in Scotland.

But the British government has said it sees no international legal obstacles to prevent the Scottish government, which is independent on judicial matters, from returning al-Megrahi to Libya.

“His absolute priority in the little time he has left is to spend it with his family in his homeland,” Margaret Scott, the Libyan’s defence lawyer, told the court.

Her client’s medical condition had worsened “very considerably” recently, she said. His prognosis was “extremely limited”, added Scott.

The abandonment of al-Megrahi’s second appeal, launched in April, was a precondition for his possible release under a prisoner transfer agreement signed between Libya and Britain earlier this year.

It comes amid separate moves by the independent regional government of Scotland to consider his release on health grounds. Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has said he will take a decision on al-Megrahi’s compassionate release “within the next couple of weeks”.

Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan agent, was sentenced under Scottish law by a special court, sitting in Camp Zeist, in the Netherlands, to life for the bombing of the Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, in which 259 people on board and 11 on the ground were killed.

Moves to free al-Megrahi, the only man to be convicted of the bombing, have been opposed by the US government, and by relatives of the 189 US victims of the atrocity.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the US attorney general have informed the Scottish government of their view that al-Megrahi should serve out his term in Greenock jail, near Glasgow.

It emerged Tuesday that seven US senators, including Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, have written a letter to MacAskill urging him to keep al-Megrahi behind bars.

The senators’ letter describes the Lockerbie bombing “a horrific act of international terrorism”, adding that “until the tragic events of Sep 11, 2001, no terrorist act had killed more American civilians”.

While most of the British relatives of the Lockerbie victims have welcomed moves to free al-Megrahi, there has been an overwhelmingly negative response from US relatives.