**The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has applied to abandon his second appeal against his conviction, his lawyers have said.**The news comes after the BBC reported that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi looked set to be freed on compassionate grounds next week.
The Libyan, who has terminal cancer, is serving a life sentence for the murder of 270 people in December 1988.
Lawyers said his condition had taken a “significant turn for the worse”.
They said he had applied to the High Court in Edinburgh two days ago to abandon his appeal against conviction.
A spokesman for the legal firm Taylor and Kelly said: “As the appeal hearing has commenced… leave of the court is required before the appeal can be formally abandoned.”