(Updates with reaction from Lockerbie relatives, Libya,
Scotland)
By Hadeel Al Shalchi and Ali Shuaib
TRIPOLI, May 20 (Reuters) – Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the
Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of a PanAm flight over
Lockerbie, died of cancer on Sunday aged 60, leaving many
questions on the attack and its aftermath unanswered.
Megrahi, who said he was not responsible for bringing the
jumbo jet down on the Scottish town and killing 270 people, was
found guilty in 2001 but was freed in 2009 and returned to Libya
because he had terminal cancer and was not expected to live
long.
Megrahi’s brother Mohammed told Reuters he had died at his
home in the Libyan capital from complications from prostate
cancer and the funeral would take place on Monday.
“He was too sick to utter anything on his deathbed,” another
brother, Abdulhakim, said. “Just because Abdul Basset is dead
doesn’t mean the past is now erased,” he said. “We will always
tell the world that my brother was innocent.”
The decision by officials in Scotland to return Megrahi to
Libya angered relatives of many victims, 189 of whom were
American, and was criticised by Washington as Megrahi returned
to a hero’s welcome from Muammar Gaddafi.
That he survived for nearly three more years, outliving
Gaddafi, who was overthrown last year, caused discomfort in
Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron, visiting the United
States on Sunday, said Megrahi should never have been freed.
Scottish leader Alex Salmond said his death confirmed his
medical condition had been serious. “Mr Megrahi’s death ends one
chapter of the Lockerbie case, but it does not close the book,”
he said, noting Scottish lawyers were seeking other suspects.
Megrahi, the only person convicted for the bombing, was
found guilty under Scots law of secretly loading a suitcase bomb
onto a plane at Malta’s Luqa Airport, where he was head of
operations for Libyan Arab Airlines in December 1988.
The suitcase was transferred at Frankfurt to another flight
and then onto New York-bound PanAm Flight 103 at London’s
Heathrow airport, concluded Scottish judges sitting at a
converted Dutch military base selected as a neutral trial venue.
All 259 people aboard the aircraft were killed when it
exploded and 11 people in the small town of Lockerbie died when
homes and vehicles were obliterated by falling debris.
Megrahi, handed over by Gaddafi under a U.N.-brokered deal,
always insisted he was merely an airline executive, not a Libyan
intelligence agent as prosecutors charged.
His trial was part of a process of rapprochement by which
Gaddafi distanced himself from association with groups regarded
as terrorists in the West and secured renewed cooperation with
Western firms keen to exploit Libya’s oil and gas reserves.
CONTROVERSIES
Reaction to Megrahi’s death reflected the controversies that
have raged for years over his role.
Many people in Britain say they believe he was a scapegoat,
while many in the United States have accused Britain of
releasing him to help secure oil deals in Gaddafi’s Libya.
Britain has denied the charge.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, who wanted the
Libyan government that took over after Gaddafi’s ouster and
killing by rebels to take Megrahi into custody, said his return
to Libya was a major injustice.
“The whole deal smelled of a deal for oil for this man’s
freedom and that was almost blasphemy given what a horrible
person he was and the terrible destruction and tragedy that he
caused,” Schumer told CNN.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever get to the bottom of it now.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was in opposition
when Megrahi was freed, said in Chicago: “I’ve always been clear
he should never have been released from prison.
“Today is a day to remember the 270 people who lost their
lives in what was an appalling terrorist act. Our thoughts
should be with them and their families for the suffering they’ve
had.”
Jim Swire, the father of one of the British Lockerbie
victims, said he was convinced Megrahi was innocent.
“I’ve been satisfied for some years that this man had
nothing to do with the murder of my daughter and I grit my teeth
every time I hear newscasters say ‘Lockerbie bomber has died'”
he told BBC News television. “This is a sad day.”
Megrahi told Reuters in October the West had exaggerated his
role and the truth about what happened would emerge soon.
Babette Solon Hollister, 79, whose 20 year old daughter died
on the PanAm flight said: “I don’t know if he was totally guilty
but we know he was involved … I doubt anything will be
resolved now.”
Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), which ousted
Gaddafi last year, has said it would work with the Scottish
government over the possible involvement of others in the 1988
bombing, an attack the country’s new rulers are eager to
distance themselves from.
“We would have liked to uncover more truths, but his death
will not shut the Lockerbie file,” NTC spokesman Mohamed
al-Harizy said on Sunday.
Gaddafi’s Libya emerged from isolation after it scrapped a
banned weapons programme and paid compensation for the Lockerbie
bombing.
Megrahi was handed over by Libya with fellow suspect Al-Amin
Khalifa Fahima under a U.N.-brokered deal. Fahima was acquitted
by the Scottish judges at Camp Zeist in January 2001.
Megrahi was jailed in the town of Greenock, near Glasgow.
On Sunday, his neighbours in the Libyan capital rolled out a
carpet and set up chairs in the courtyard outside his house in
preparation for condolence visits by family and friends.
“My brother was surrounded by his wife, children and his
mother as he took his last breath,” his brother Abdulhakim said.
(Additional reporting by Lin Noueihed in Tunis, Olesya
Dmitracova in London and Lily Kuo in New York, Adrian Croft in
Chicago and Bill Trott in Washington; writing by Philippa
Fletcher; editing by Alastair Macdonald)
