Smash hit

“We on his legal team are continuing to prepare his appeal, which we hope will take place some time next year.”

Families of the victims today urged the Crown Office to show compassion and hasten the legal process.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the disaster, said: “I feel that it is a very serious threat to his life and it would be a tragedy if he is to spend the rest of his life in a Scottish prison, particularly if he is not guilty of the crime of which he was found guilty.”

Dr Swire, who is also spokesman for the UK Families Flight 103 group, said it was his hope that Al Megrahi could be reunited with his family, either by moving them back to the UK, or allowing him some kind of parole to be repatriated.

Former Labour MP Tam Dalyell, who is convinced of Megrahi’s innocence, said he was “very upset” at the news.

“My view is there is a moral obligation to speed up the (appeal) process”, said Mr Dalyell, 76.

Alex Neil, SNP MSP for Central Scotland, said: “In light of Mr Al Megrahi’s illness I am calling on the Crown Office to bring forward his trial and not to cause any further delays.

“It is in the interests of natural justice that a timeous appeal trial takes place early in 2009. “There should be no more prevarication by the Crown Office.”

While it has not been indicated if Al-Megrahi will seek clemency on grounds of his condition, other high profile prisoners have appealed for release in the face of deteriorating health.

Reggie Kray, the notorious gangland boss, was let of jail after 33 years because he had terminal cancer, and Ronnie Biggs, who took part in the Great Train Robbery, is reportedly to be released next year, following a stroke.

Lockerbie bombing Q&A

What are the grounds for al-Megrahi's appeal?

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission last year published an 800-page report highlighting six issues that could have led to a miscarriage of justice. Appeal judges have since ruled that al-Megrahi's defence team can also submit their own grounds for appeal. His legal team maintains that the Crown did not disclose to the defence all of the evidence it had seen before the trial, including documents believed to contain information about the electronic timer used to detonate the bomb

What options are open to the Crown Office now that he is ill?

Although it has yet to receive a request from al-Megrahi's lawyers to speed up the appeals process, the Crown Office could bring forward the hearing - for which a date has yet to be set - that will determine whether his conviction is to be overturned. Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, also has the power to release the Libyan on humanitarian grounds

Could al-Megrahi return home?

Yes, under the terms of a Prisoner Transfer Agreement the UK Government is negotiating with Libya. If his defence team ask for compassionate leave the decision will again rest with Holyrood. It may depend on where al-Megrahi can get the best medical treatment

Who, if not al-Megrahi, is behind the bombing of Flight 103?

In the aftermath of the attack, suspicion rested on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, an Iranian offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said to have been acting on behalf of the Iranian government, which wanted revenge for the shooting down of an Iranian Airbus by the US warship USS Vincennes in 1988.

When police raided a cell operating in Frankfurt, Germany, a few weeks before the Lockerbie attack they found a Toshiba radio bomb similar to the one used to blow up Flight 103

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