Libyan protest over Lockerbie trial

Al-Megrahi faces life in a Scottish prison

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Thousands of Libyans have held a peaceful protest against a Scottish courts decision to uphold the conviction of a former Libyan intelligence agent in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi was jailed for life for his part in the bombing which killed 259 people on board Pan AM flight 103 and 11 people on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

The demonstration, on Sunday, focused on the United Nations office in Tripoli.

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In a statement handed to a U.N. representative, the protesters called on the international body to "interfere to save the political hostage Abdel-Basset al-Megrahi."

"The sentence contradicts international laws as it was handed as a result of political pressure aimed at settling account with the Libyan revolution," said the statement.

Al-Megrahi, 49, lost an appeal on Thursday against his 2001 conviction.

The judges said "none of the grounds of the appeal are well-founded."

Libya has described the five-judge court's unanimous decision as a "political verdict" and said it will lodge an appeal to the UK House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights.

Sanctions against Libya were suspended, but not lifted, in 1999 after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi turned over al-Megrahi to the court.

Al-Megrahi was accused by the prosecution of placing explosives, hidden in a suitcase, on a flight from Malta to Frankfurt, where it was transferred onto the Pan Am plane to New York via Heathrow.

His co-accused, Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, was found not guilty in the first trial that was held at Camp Zeist but heard under Scottish law.

The prosecution maintained al-Megrahi, who worked at Malta's Luqa Airport, was an agent for the Libyan intelligence services and that he had been seen buying clothes that were in the suitcase that contained the bomb.