Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi is on brink of death, says family

12 April 2012

The family of the Lockerbie bomber said today he was likely to die within days.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, 58, is on a life support machine in Libya and is understood to have suffered a rapid deterioration in his condition.

Reports today, citing sources close to his family, said he had stopped being able to speak some weeks ago and had fallen into a coma.

The Libyan was freed from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds in August last year after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.

He was sentenced to life in jail after his conviction for the murder of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland.

The decision to free him, which was taken by Scotland's justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, sparked fury in America and was condemned by President Obama's administration. At the time he was expected to die within three months.

Documents released by WikiLeaks this week indicated that his release followed threats by Libya to British commercial interests and diplomats in the country, although both the Scottish and UK governments have insisted that the decision was taken by the Edinburgh administration on medical grounds.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in