Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi found ‘at death’s door’

A CNN journalist, correspondent Nic Robertson, said he had found al-Megrahi in a “palatial house” in a wealthy part of Tripoli under surveillance supervision and surrounded by concerned family members.

“He appears to be a shell of the man that he was, far sicker than he appeared before … at death’s door,” said Robertson.

Megrahi was unconscious when Robertson found him, and his family said that he had stopped eating and had occasionally lapsed into a coma.

The alleged former Libyan intelligence agent had been returned to Libya over two years after being released from a Scottish prison for health reasons. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Scotland’s First Minister said the new pictures confirmed that Mr Megrahi was close to death.

Scottish authorities said that they had lost contact with Megrahi two days ago during the chaotic battles for Tripoli. Until then they had been regular contact with him as part of the conditions of his release.

Megrahi had been serving a 27-year prison sentence for the bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 270 people when in crashed near Lockerbie in 1988.

At the time the decision was taken to release Megrahi from prison, Scottish officials said his illness was so severe he was not expected to live beyond three months.

The rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), which has now become the defact government following the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, had earlier said that they would not extradite Megrahi and that they “will not give any Libyan citizen to the West”.

“Al-Megrahi has already been judged once and he will not be judged again … We do not hand over Libyan citizens. Gaddafi does,” said Mohammed al-Alagi, the NTC justice minister.

Megrahi’s release to Libya angered many in the US, including relatives of those killed aboard the Pan Am flight.

Televised images of Megrahi getting a hero’s welcome after his release in Tripoli continued to anger both families of victims of the bombing and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic.

But a number of other victims’ families decided to speak out and claimed that Megrahi deserves to be left to die in peace. Those reactions came up after confirmation from the Scottish Government that contact had been made with Megrahi’s family during the weekend after several failed attempts since the fighting reached Tripoli.

However the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said his government has no intention of seeking Megrahi’s return to Scotland.

Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora, 23, said that he would treat Megrahi himself, if he could, to allow him a dignified death. He defined the idea of extraditing him as “a monstrous one”.

Speaking about the CNN footage, the retired GP said: “It is obvious he is sufficiently ill and in need of pain relief and medical care. His medical treatment has been withdrawn due to the circumstances in Tripoli, and his family are saying his drugs have been stolen.”

Other relatives fear that their chances of discovering the truth behind the Lockerbie bombing would disappear forever if Megrahi dies.

Pam Dix, who’s lost her brother Peter, 35, said: “The sad thing is that with the death of this man will go our chance of knowing for sure whether he was involved or not.”

Martin Cadman, father of another victim, Bill, 32, said British relatives still had questions as to the circumstances surrounding the attack.

The former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told BBC Radio 5 live that Megrahi should be in jail and called for him to extradited.

“He killed 270 people. He served roughly 10 years in jail before he was released by British authorities. Do the math – that means he served roughly two weeks in prison for every person he killed. Two weeks per murder. That is not nearly enough.”