Lockerbie bomber’s £250k cell
Jail chiefs built £250k luxury flat behind bars for bomber who killed 270 people
PRISONER 55725 was flanked by two armed escorts as he emerged from his helicopter to spend his first night in Glasgow’s notorious Barlinnie prison.
It was Thursday, March 14, 2002 – more than a year after he’d been convicted for his part in Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity in which 270 people died.
But Abd elba set al-Megrahi wasn’t going to be mingling with the nick’s general population.
A special £ 250,000 prison within a prison was created for the then 49-year-old, which was quickly dubbed the “Gaddafi Cafe” after the Libyan tyrant and was complete with a living room, kitchen, dining room and bathroom.
It meant the former Libyan intelligence officer wouldn’t have to endure the indignity of slopping out faced by other inmates but could instead use his own private toilet.
Nor would he have to share his cell in the overcrowded Victorian prison.
And the man who was called Britain’s worst ever mass murderer after his conviction for blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, in December 1988 said his first few nights in Glasgow led to a terrible depression as the reality of his life sentence kicked in.
He later wrote: “My first days in the unit were dreadful. A doctor had to prescribe me sleeping pills and I was kept under observation by the guards. There was an automatic alarm system, which emitted nerve-shattering attering rings every 20 minutes.
“I complained repeatedly to the governor, telling him that sleep deprivation amounted to o torture andd, following a ann intervention by the he Libyan embassy,, it was adjusted to activate hourly.”
Megrahi , who protested his innocence until he died, was terrified he would be poisoned and worried that he would be a target for other prisoners.
However, his fears were unfounded and in 2004 he was moved to Greenock
Prison. Bosses there had spent £110,000 converting two cells into one for the bomber. At first, he was housed in the Chrisswell unit, which was populated by long- term prisoners, while preparations continued for his specially equipped cell – but prison life was about to take a surprising turn for Megrahi. Speculation had been mounting that he was innocent and had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. There were rumblings
some of the families who lost relatives in the bombing were convinced he was a scapegoat and had not been responsible for the atrocity.
But that wasn’t the reason the father of five became the most popular inmate. The other prisoners didn’t care whether he was guilty or innocent. And his popularity and “friendships” in Chrisswell led him to refuse a move to his luxury isolation cell.
The conditions were good in Chrisswell – not least because the Libyan government paid for Sky to be installed so Megrahi could watch Arabic TV, which was a treat for the other prisoners because it meant they could watch their football teams in action.
A prison source said: “Megrahi was a popular man. The reason for his presence in jail quickly became forgotten when the other prisoners realised they could watch the Rangers or Celtic games thanks to Megrahi.”
He was given £500 a month by the Libyan consulate, which he spent on phone calls, snacks and “the occasional luxury item, which we were allowed to order through ugh the Argos catalogue”.”. In his book he said he enjoyed playing snooker and football, as well as the spicy food prepared for him by his “best friend”, a Sikh inmate called Singh.
The highlight of Megrahi’s Scottish prison life was the private visit of ex-South African president Nelson Mandela in 2002 to Barlinnie.
The two talked for more than an hour and Mandela gave a press conference calling for a fresh appeal into the case and asked that Megrahi be transferred to serve his sentence in his home country. On September 2323, 20082008, Megrahi was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, which fuelled calls from his supporters for another appeal. In December that year, his family, including wife Aisha, joined others protesting against alleged miscarriages of justice in the Scottish justice system. The then justice secretary Kenny MacAskill visited Greenock Prison to hear Megrahi’s request for a transfer to Libya.
Two weeks later, MacAskill announced Megrahi would be released on compassionate grounds to spend his “final months” with his family in Libya. He was expected to die within three months.
An aircraft belonging to Gaddafi took Megrahi to Libya where hundreds of people greeted him amid wild celebrations.
He vowed to present evidence which would clear him of the bombing.
Megrahi lived for another four years and died at home in Tripoli at the age of 60. Efforts to clear him are still going on.