London, Aug 20 (DPA) The Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of a Pan Am airliner which killed 270 people was freed from a jail in Scotland on health grounds Thursday, officials said.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, 57, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, was expected to be flown to his native Libya immediately after his release. He served eight years of a life sentence passed in 2001.

Al-Megrahi's supporters argued that he should be allowed to return to his family in Libya, as he was not expected to live through the end of the year. US officials have been speaking out against his release since reports out of London began emerging last week that al-Megrahi would be freed.