VARIOUS FILE: Former Libyan intelligence officer convicted in Lockerbie bombing Abdel Basset al-Megrahi has died aged sixty

Record ID: 899225

  • Title: VARIOUS FILE: Former Libyan intelligence officer convicted in Lockerbie bombing Abdel Basset al-Megrahi has died aged sixty
  • Date: 21st May 2012
  • Summary: TRIPOLI, LIBYA (RECENT - OCTOBER 2, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR AL-MEGRAHI'S HOME. INTERIOR, AL-MEGRAHI LYING IN BED WIRED UP TO MEDICAL MONITORING EQUIPMENT. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AL-MEGRAHI, SAYING: "Don't get me into the mess of February, March or April. I'm a simple person, more simple than you can imagine. The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months. I want to die in my house, among my family. I wish from God that I will see my country united, with no fighting or war. I hope the bloodshed will stop in Libya. I wish all the best for my country." AL-MEGRAHI LYING IN BED, MONITORING EQUIPMENT BEEPING, AL-MEGRAHI'S WIFE CHECKING EQUIPMENT
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2012 00:02
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya, United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom Libya
  • Topics: Crime,Obituaries
  • Reuters ID: LVAEY53VDMYK23X2O2GG3YY30H2
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: 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.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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