EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) - A Scottish court has refused to release cancer-stricken Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi on bail pending an appeal of the case.

Lawyers for the former Libyan intelligence agency officer argued that their client should be released because he recently was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the disease has spread.

But the Court of Criminal Appeal rejected that argument Friday.

Al-Megrahi is serving a life sentence in a prison in Scotland for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, which killed 270 people. He and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, were prosecuted in The Hague n 2001 for carrying out the bombing. Fhimah was acquitted.

Al-Megrahi has been trying to appeal his conviction.

Of those killed in the bombing 40 people had ties to Central New York.

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