Megrahi was jailed for life in January by a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands for planting the bomb on the PanAm flight that killed 270 people in 1988. Two years ago as South Africa's president, Mr. Mandela played a crucial role with Saudi Arabia when he helped to persuade Khaddafi to surrender Megrahi and his co-accused, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, for trial on neutral ground. Mr. Fhimah was acquitted.
In February 2001, Mr. Mandela accused Britain and the United States of breaking the agreement by imposing fresh conditions for the lifting of UN sanctions against Libya, which so far have only been suspended. Britain and the US say sanctions should be scrapped only when Libya admi ts it was responsible for the destruction of PanAm flight 103 and pays compensation to the victims' families. "We received certain guarantees, one of the most important [being] that if Libya delivered the suspects, the sanctions would be lifted," Mr. Mandela said at the time. "We expected that the West would honor its undertaking. Unfortunately, that was not done."
Khaddafi has yet to live up to his promise, made after the verdict, to reveal evidence proving Megrahi's innocence. He was a consistent supporter of the African National Congress when it was banned in South Africa.
