Rescue personnel carry a body away from an airplane crash site in a farmer's field east of Lockerbie, Scotland, after a mid-air bombing killed all 259 passengers and crew, and 11 people on the ground, in this December 22, 1988 file photo. (REUTERS)

LONDON (Reuters) — A decision by the Scottish government whether to release a Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing may be announced as early as Thursday, a legislator said on Wednesday.

Christine Grahame, a member of the Scottish Parliament who has campaigned against the conviction, said she expected former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to be freed early on compassionate grounds because he has terminal cancer.

The regional administration has come under pressure from the United States to keep Megrahi in jail, while a British government minister said the wait for news was “becoming embarrassing.’’

“I don’t think it will be long coming,’’ Grahame told BBC radio. “I suspect we might have something maybe tomorrow (Thursday) morning. We will probably go for compassionate release.
It avoids a lot of difficulties.’’

Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is considering two requests from Megrahi to be released early, on compassionate grounds or under a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) between Britain and Libya.

MacAskill has previously said he will announce his decision before the end of August. Scotland’s devolved government is responsible for justice and other policy areas.

Megrahi can be freed under the PTA only when all active criminal proceedings have ended. While Scotland’s High Court accepted his request to drop his second appeal on Tuesday, the process has yet to be finalised. A further hearing is due in three weeks.

Scotland’s judicial authorities must also drop their own appeal against Megrahi’s original sentence, which they saw as too lenient. Megrahi, 57, was convicted in 2001 of the murder of all 259 people on board a Pan Am Boeing 747 and 11 killed on the ground when the aircraft exploded in mid-air above the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Britain’s Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy appeared to rebuke the government in Edinburgh for failing to make an announcement on Megrahi a week after media reports said he would be freed.

“They should get on and make the decision because it is dragging on and it is becoming a little bit embarrassing,’’ Murphy said in televised comments to reporters.

The US government and the relatives of many of the 189 American victims oppose Megrahi’s early release and say he should serve his full life sentence in prison.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters: “It is absolutely wrong to release someone who has been imprisoned based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime.’’

However, the families of many of the Britons killed in the bombing believe Megrahi should be allowed to go home to die.

Some also say the evidence presented at his trial was not strong enough to find him guilty.