Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people, is reportedly in a coma-like condition and close to death at his home in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for carrying out the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed in the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people. He was released in August 2009 from a Scottish prison on ‘compassionate grounds’ after doctors claimed he had only several months to live.
But the decision to release Megrahi was met with anger in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries, while celebrations broke out in Libya when Megrahi returned to live there with his family.
On Sunday, CNN correspondent Nic Robertson was able to find the home of Megrahi where his family allowed the reporter to see the convicted terrorist. “Nothing prepares me for what I see, Megrahi, apparently in a coma, [and] his aging mother by his side,” Robertson said.
Megrahi’s son, Khaled al-Megrahi, explained only oxygen and fluids have kept in alive, as he has stopped eating despite regaining consciousness once in a while. Furthermore, Khaled al-Megrahi said they have not been able to see any doctors to check on his conditions.
“Nobody can know how long he will stay alive, nobody know,” Khaled al-Megrahi told Robertson.
Earlier this year, former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Al Jeleil told Swedish newspaper Expressen that he had evidence that Gaddafi was the person who gave the order to bomb Pan Am Flight 103, which was on a daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
“I have evidence that Gaddafi ordered the Lockerbie bombing,” Al-Jleil was cited as saying by Expressen in February, without giving other details. “To hide this, he did everything in his power to get Megrahi back from Scotland.”
