LIBYA has offered to spare the lives of five nurses and a doctor on death row if Britain hands over the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

Tripoli has told British and American diplomats that it will free the medical staff from Bulgaria and Palestine if Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is allowed to serve the remainder of his life sentence in Libya.

The offer was made during secret talks to free the five nurses and a doctor accused of deliberately infecting almost 400 children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi, in northeast Libya, in the late 1990s.

Lawyers acting for the prisoners, who face execution by firing squad, claim they were framed.

They also alleged that they have been repeatedly raped and tortured during their seven years in jail.

Further talks with the Libyan authorities are scheduled to take place later this month.

The disclosure follows mounting speculation that there are plans to repatriate Megrahi to Tripoli to serve the rest of his 27-year sentence.

The former Libyan intelligence officer is serving his sentence in Greenock prison after being convicted of the 1988 atrocity in which 270 people were killed.

His conviction is being reviewed by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is being lobbied by MSPs and victims’ relatives to reopen the case amid concerns Megrahi is innocent.

Last month, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, the former lord advocate who issued the arrest warrant for Megrahi, told The Sunday Times that he had doubts about the reliability of the main witness in the trial.

The former Conservative minister described Tony Gauci, the Maltese shopkeeper whose testimony was central in securing the conviction in 2001 as “not quite the full shilling” and “an apple short of a picnic”.

He added that Megrahi should be allowed to leave Scotland to serve the remainder of his sentence in Libya.

Last week, a source close to the talks said the Bulgarian government had approached Britain in the hope its experience in dealing with Libya over the Lockerbie affair might secure the release of the six prisoners.

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