THE MAN CONVICTED of the Lockerbie bombing and granted early release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds has died in Libya, according to Reuters.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was jailed in 2001 for the bombing of a PanAm plane above Lockerbie, Scotland which killed 270 people in 1988. He repeatedly denied he was involved in the attack.
He was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds when suffering from prostate cancer after reportedly being diagnosed with just months to live.
Upon his arrival in Libya, he was greeted by Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam Gaddafi. Thousands of people had gathered at the Tripoli airport to welcome him.
Before his release, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said there were six grounds for believing a miscarriage of justice may have occurred over Megrahi’s conviction. However, it said that an appeals court must decide whether that was the case. Megrahi dropped his appeal shortly before being released from prison.
His family said that his health had deteriorated after his return home and that he had been in and out of a coma for several months before his death. His brother Abdulkahim has told news agencies that he passed away today.
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