Bomber release campaign launched

Mr Swire is backing the campaign to release Megrahi

The father of a Lockerbie bombing victim has launched a bid to free the man convicted of carrying it out.

Dr Jim Swire - who lost his daughter Flora in the 1988 atrocity - is backing the Justice for Megrahi campaign.

Supporters want Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to be released from jail on compassionate grounds after it emerged he was suffering from prostate cancer.

An application for the Libyan's interim liberation was turned down by the Appeal Court in Edinburgh last month.

'Common humanity'

The campaign is seeking support for an application to be made to the Scottish Government for Megrahi to be freed.

When appeal court judges turned down an application for bail they said they were not convinced his health condition justified his release.

They said that if he responded well to palliative treatment he might well live for a number of years.

Megrahi is currently in the process of making a second appeal against his conviction for the 1988 atrocity in which 270 people were killed.

Mr Swire said the question of his release was one of "common humanity".

On Friday, he visited Megrahi in prison for the second time.

Mr Swire said he noticed a change in Megrahi's appearance.

He has proclaimed throughout the last 15 years since he has been brought to the court that he is innocent Dr Jim Swire

"He is clearly a man who is not physically well," he said.

He paid tribute to Megrahi's family for their loyalty, which had extended to the Libyan's daughter deciding to get married in Barlinnie prison in Glasgow at the time her father was held there.

"We need to try to put ourselves in the position of a man who is 1,000 miles away from his home country, who separated from his family whom he loves dearly and who love him dearly, and who has been told he has only months to live.

"He has proclaimed throughout the last 15 years since he has been brought to the court that he is innocent."

Mr Swire, a retired GP who has long argued that Megrahi is innocent, said: "He is in a desperate human situation - put yourself into that position and see what it would be like."

Other supporters of the campaign include a Roman Catholic priest who witnessed the aftermath of the bombing.

Father Patrick Keegans said Megrahi was innocent of the crime and also deserved release on compassionate grounds.

Ian McKie, whose daughter Shirley, a former policewoman, accepted £750,000 from the then Scottish Executive in 2006 after a long-running legal battle over fingerprint evidence in an Ayrshire murder case, also supported the campaign.

Mr McKie said his son, Stuart, was one of the first police officers on the scene in Lockerbie and has never recovered.

The campaign group plan to mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster later this month with a service in the chapel of Heathrow Airport.