SCOTLAND: The Lockerbie bomber was back in prison last night after being told he must spend at least 27 years in jail before he can be considered for release.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi (51) learned at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday that he will be 74 years old before he is entitled to a parole review.
Judges at a special Scottish court in the Netherlands had originally recommended the Libyan should serve a minimum of 20 years for the December 1988 outrage.
But the same three judges ruled yesterday that the former Libyan intelligence agent, a prisoner at Glasgow's tough Barlinnie jail, must serve an extra seven years.
The hearing, presided over by Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and MacLean, was held to decide the "punishment part" of Al Megrahi's sentence, a procedure now mandatory for all lifers under new European Human Rights legislation.
Lord Sutherland told the Libyan: "The overwhelming factor in the present case is the deliberate and planned use of an explosive device to cause multiple deaths and corresponding anguish to the relatives of the victims."
New York-bound Flight Pan Am 103 was blown out of the skies over Lockerbie on December 21st, 1988, causing the deaths of all 259 men, women and children on board the aircraft and 11 residents of the small market town in the Scottish Borders.
Almost 15 years after the atrocity, Al Megrahi was led into Court Three, which was packed with relatives of those killed in the bombing and media, amid a huge police security operation around the building in Glasgow city centre.
Flanked by police officers, and seated behind bullet proof screens, Al Megrahi wore a plain grey suit and tie and earphones as he listened to proceedings via an interpreter. No member of his family was present.
Al Megrahi's legal team said their client still "strenuously" protested his innocence of the bombing but after retiring for 30 minutes to consider their verdict, Lord Sutherland said the Libyan had been found guilty of a "wicked act".
The law lord indicated that Al Megrahi might have been sentenced to 30 years but for his age and the fact that he was serving his sentence in a foreign country.
Lord Sutherland added: "Quite clearly this was a wicked act carried out in the full knowledge that the plan, if successful, would result in the slaughter of many entirely innocent persons." Outside the court, US relatives of victims of the bombing reacted angrily to the jail term, and urged the Crown to appeal the sentence on the basis of undue leniency.
Mr Jack Flynn (65) from New Jersey, whose son John Patrick was on Flight Pan Am 103 and would have been 36 today, said: "Mr Megrahi would never walk the face of the earth as a free man, as far as my justice would be concerned."
But the UK relatives group said they had no comment on the sentence and repeated their demand for a probe into the events surrounding the bombing.
Al Megrahi's solicitor, Mr Eddie MacKechnie, who has lodged appeal papers with the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, said his client was looking forward to challenging his conviction in court.
"As far as the future is concerned - this is what really matters - all this has done is accentuate the need for us to marshal all our forces to establish the innocence of this man," he said.