The appeal by dying former Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi against his life sentence for the 1988 Lockerbie aircraft bombing, will not be decided until next year, the Scottish Appeal Court said today.
Scotland's top judge, Arthur Hamilton, said at the end of a two-day procedural hearing that the final two substantive appeal sessions would run from November 2nd to December 11th, and January 12th to February 26th, 2010.
A total of 270 people were killed when the Pan Am jumbo jet exploded over the southwestern Scottish town of Lockerbie, including 189 Americans and 11 people on the ground.
One of the five judges hearing the appeal is recovering from recent heart surgery and Hamilton said this, combined with the pressure of other business on the court, meant it was not practical to hold earlier sessions.
The illness of John Wheatley has already meant a deferment in considering appeal arguments heard so far, and Megrahi's lawyer Maggie Scott expressed dismay at the delays.
"There is a very serious danger that my client will die before the case is determined," she told the court on Tuesday, adding that his health "is deteriorating with a relentless onset of symptoms". Megrahi (57) has terminal prostate cancer and is currently in Greenock prison near Glasgow.
After a trial in a special Scottish court meeting in The Netherlands in 2001, he was sentenced to 27 years' in prison.
An appeal the following year was rejected, but a Scottish review body gave the go ahead in 2007 for a second appeal on the grounds that there may have been a miscarriage of justice.
In the first part of the appeal through May, his lawyers questioned whether the trial court had been correct in accepting evidence relating to his identification, the type of fuse in the bomb and how it was consigned to the Pan Am flight.
In the next hearings, legal sources said the appeal lawyers were expected to introduce fresh evidence and question the competence of his previous lawyers.
The Libyan and British governments signed a prisoner transfer agreement this year and Tripoli has sought Megrahi's return. But Scotland has a separate legal system from the rest of Britain and his fate lies with the Scottish government.
Scotland's Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill is currently consulting all parties concerned, including the U.S. and Libyan governments and families of the victims of the bombing before deciding whether to accede to Libya's request.