Brother claims Lockerbie bomber is near death
Source: Agencies |
August 30, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is near death and slipping in and out of consciousness, his brother said yesterday, insisting he should not return to prison for the 1998 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people.
Calls that Abdel Baset al-Megrahi be returned to prison have increased in the United States and Europe since rebel forces seized Tripoli last week.
"He is between life and death, so what difference would prison make?" asked his brother, Abdel-Nasser al-Megrahi, standing outside the family's house in an upscale Tripoli neighborhood.
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted for the bombing in 2001, was freed from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds in August 2009, after doctors estimated he had three months to live. He was greeted as a hero in Libya and recently appeared on TV in a wheelchair at a pro-Moammar Gadhafi rally.
His release, after serving eight years of a life sentence, infuriated the families of many Lockerbie victims, most of them American.
Two New York senators recently asked Libya's transitional government to hold al-Megrahi fully accountable for the Pan Am bombing. But the head of the semi-autonomous Scottish government, First Minister Alex Salmond, told reporters that only his administration would have the legal right to demand al-Megrahi's extradition - and that it had no intention of doing so, as he had abided by the conditions set when he was released.
On Sunday, rebel transitional government Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi said that the renewed demands for punishment had "no meaning," because al-Megrahi had already been tried and convicted. But yesterday he appeared to backtrack, saying officials knew the issue was important but that any discussions would have to wait until an elected government was in place.
Calls that Abdel Baset al-Megrahi be returned to prison have increased in the United States and Europe since rebel forces seized Tripoli last week.
"He is between life and death, so what difference would prison make?" asked his brother, Abdel-Nasser al-Megrahi, standing outside the family's house in an upscale Tripoli neighborhood.
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted for the bombing in 2001, was freed from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds in August 2009, after doctors estimated he had three months to live. He was greeted as a hero in Libya and recently appeared on TV in a wheelchair at a pro-Moammar Gadhafi rally.
His release, after serving eight years of a life sentence, infuriated the families of many Lockerbie victims, most of them American.
Two New York senators recently asked Libya's transitional government to hold al-Megrahi fully accountable for the Pan Am bombing. But the head of the semi-autonomous Scottish government, First Minister Alex Salmond, told reporters that only his administration would have the legal right to demand al-Megrahi's extradition - and that it had no intention of doing so, as he had abided by the conditions set when he was released.
On Sunday, rebel transitional government Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi said that the renewed demands for punishment had "no meaning," because al-Megrahi had already been tried and convicted. But yesterday he appeared to backtrack, saying officials knew the issue was important but that any discussions would have to wait until an elected government was in place.
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