GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- The Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie Pan Am Flight 103 bombing was sentenced Monday to 27 years in prison, news reports said.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi's sentence will be backdated to 1999 when he was first taken into custody, the BBC said.
The former Libyan secret service agent was sentenced two years ago to life in prison for the 1988 bombing, but a change in the law meant Megrahi, 51, had to be sentenced again to a specific period of time.
After a four-minute hearing in Glasgow, the same three judges who jailed him for life in 2001 after an 84-day trial issued the new sentence.
The judges indicated al-Megrahi might have been sentenced to 30 years but they took into account his age and the fact that he was serving his sentence in a foreign country.
Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people.
Megrahi has maintained his innocence since his trial, the London Telegraph said.
