(Corrects age to 60)
By Hadeel Al Shalchi
TRIPOLI, May 20 (Reuters) – The former Libyan intelligence
officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over
Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people has died, his
brother said on Sunday. He was 60.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi died at home after a long battle
with cancer. His health had deteriorated quickly overnight, his
brother Abdulhakim told Reuters.
“He was surrounded by his family and died in his house,”
Abdulhakim said on Sunday.
Megrahi had been in and out of hospital for weeks and he was
taken for an emergency blood transfusion in April.
He was held in a prison in the town of Greenock in western
Scotland after he was tried and convicted for the bombing under
Scottish law, although the trial was held in the Netherlands.
In November 2008, Megrahi’s lawyers asked a court to free
him on bail, saying he was suffering from advanced prostate
cancer. He was later released from the Scottish prison on
compassionate grounds and returned to Libya, a decision
criticised by the United States.
Megrahi, who served as an intelligence agent during the rule
of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, denied any role in both the
bombing and suspected human rights abuses in his home country
before Gaddafi’s fall and death in a popular uprising last year.
(Additional reporting by Ali Shuaib; editing by Philippa
Fletcher)
