FD Editor’s Note:  He was released on compassionate grounds because he has cancer.  This is the ultimate in cruelty…

LONDON — British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Wednesday he would like to see convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi put back in jail after the overthow of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Many U.S. politicians and victims’ relatives are pressing for Megrahi’s extradition to the United States following his release on compassionate grounds two years ago. In all, 189 of the 270 dead in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing were American citizens.

“My personal view is that I would like to see al Megrahi behind bars, because whatever you think he was convicted in a court of law for one of the most atricious terrorist acts this country has ever seen,” Clegg told Sky TV.

Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of playing a “significant part in planning and perpetrating” the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish border town of Lockerbie.

He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum jail term of 27 years but he returned to Libya in August 2009 after being freed from a Scottish jail on the grounds he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

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BP is to begin deep-water drilling off Libya, despite environmental concerns following the Gulf of Mexico spill and an international row over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

The plans, reported in the Financial Times, come in the shadow of controversy, as the oil giant faces new scrutiny of its 2007 deal to acquire gas and oil fields off the Libyan coast at a cost of $900 million.

At a depth of more than 1700 metres below sea level, the new site in Libya’s Gulf of Sirte will be 200 metres deeper than the Gulf of Mexico well that exploded on April 20, killing 11 oil workers and causing immeasurable environmental damage.

The 2007 agreement has since come under fire from American politicians, after BP revealed that it lobbied the UK government over a prisoner transfer agreement between Britain and Libya.

Despite increased pressure from senior officials, including US President Barack Obama, the UK oil group has vigorously denied any involvement in the release of Libyan terrorist Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, after the Lockerbie bomber was freed by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds.

The issue was raised last week when British Prime Minister David Cameron met President Obama for talks in Washington. Mr Cameron has indicated there could be an inquiry into the release.

BP maintains it was “not involved in any discussions with the UK government or the Scottish government about the release of Mr al-Megrahi”.

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Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was freed from prison on medical grounds last year

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore has told the House of Commons that the decision to free the Lockerbie bomber from prison was made “in good faith”.

His comments came amid the ongoing row about the circumstances surrounding the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi last year.

US senators have called for an inquiry into how that decision was reached.

Relatives of those killed at Lockerbie are now pressing for a full inquiry into the atrocity itself.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish government’s justice secretary, released Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, last year on compassionate grounds after being told that three months was a “reasonable estimate” of his life expectancy.

However, he is still alive after almost a year and the issue has dominated much of UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to the US this week.

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Abdel Basset Ali al Megrahi was released from prison on compassionate grounds.  Ismail Zetouny / Reuters

David Sapsted, Foreign Correspondent

LONDON // There is growing unease in Britain – and mounting anger in the US – because the Lockerbie bomber is still alive in his native Libya, when he was expected to have succumbed to his illness by now.

Abdel Basset Ali al Megrahi was freed after serving eight years of a life sentence in Scotland after the Scottish government ruled that his terminal prostate cancer meant he had no more than three months to live: the only legal reason for freeing someone on compassionate grounds.

That was almost eight months ago and, on Thursday, al Megrahi celebrated his 58th birthday with family and friends at his villa in the suburbs of Tripoli.

One British newspaper reported yesterday that a diplomat in Libya said the man found responsible for planting the bomb that killed 270 people when Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie in 1988, had made a “remarkable recovery”.

Saif Qadafi, the Libyan leader’s son and possible successor, was quoted in the Asharq AlAwsat newspaper as saying that, after being flown home to a hero’s welcome in Libya, al Megrahi “was soon in better health and in a good condition”.

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Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi with his mother and daughter

The condition of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan sentenced tolife imprisonment for the Lockerbie bombing who was repatriated in August, has deteriorated and his cancer has spread through his body, according to a medical report.

“A scan has shown a worsening of the disease which has spread more than before,” said a medical bulletin released by the Tripoli Medical Centre, where al-Megrahi is being treated for terminal cancer.

The bulletin said al-Megrahi, 57, arrived at the hospital on Saturday coughing and vomiting.

He was also suffering from the effects of the chemotherapy that he has been undergoing, including weight gain, high blood pressure and sugar in the blood, as well as muscular fatigue.

“His condition was examined Saturday by a team of European experts who agreed on the continuation of chemotherapy sessions while also administering other medicaments to treat the disease,” the hospital said in its first bulletin released since al-Megrahi’s return to Libya in August.

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By Kari Lundgren and Guy Collins

(Bloomberg) — BP Plc will complete a seismic survey off the coast of Libya next month, with a view to drilling its first well in the north African country in more than 30 years, amid controversy that trade may have played a role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Europe’s second-biggest oil producer plans to drill its first Libyan well in the second half of 2010 as part of a $900 million exploration program, company spokesman David Nicholas said by telephone today.

BP signed an accord with Libya’s National Oil Corp. in May 2007, during a visit by the then U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. Its timing has raised political questions following the Scottish government’s Aug. 20 decision to free on compassionate grounds the terminally ill Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

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Despite strenuous American opposition, the Scottish government on Thursday ordered the release on compassionate grounds of the only person convicted in the Lockerbie bombing, permitting Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a 57-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent, to return home after serving 8 years of a 27-year minimum sentence on charges of murdering 270 people in Britain’s worst terrorist episode.

Still protesting his innocence, and offering “sincere sympathy” to the families of those who died in the bombing, Mr. Megrahi was granted his freedom under the terms of Scottish laws permitting the early release of prisoners with less than three months to live.

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London. Scottish authorities have started consultations between each other on the possible release of Libyan terrorist Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi, the only convict for the 1988 blast in the U.S. passenger airplane above the village of Lockerbie in Scotland,  AFP reported.

Despite the strong opposition of the U.S., which has the highest number of victims in the attack, the Scottish judicial authorities might release the Libyan because of his serious health condition.  Anonymous sources have even predicted that Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, would be released as early as this week.

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Megrahi was ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years in jail

Scotland’s justice secretary is to visit the Lockerbie bomber later amid speculation he might be moved to Libya.

Kenny MacAskill will meet Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi in Greenock Prison as he considers a transfer request from the Libyan government.

The minister has already heard the views of others, including relatives of some of the 270 victims of the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Terminally-ill Megrahi has also asked to be freed on compassionate grounds.

The transfer request was made by Libya to the UK Government last May, less than a week after a treaty allowing prisoners to be transferred between the two countries was ratified.

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