30 August 2011

By Ben HubbardAssociated PressTRIPOLI: The Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is near death and slipping in and out of consciousness, his brother said Monday, 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 U.S. and Europe since rebel forces seized Tripoli last week.

He is between life and death, so what difference would prison make? said his brother, Abdel-Nasser al-Megrahi, outside the familys 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 television in a wheelchair at a pro-Gadhafi rally.

His release, after serving eight years of a life sentence, infuriated the families of many Lockerbie victims, most of whom were American. Some critics of his release have long suspected it was motivated by Britains attempts to improve relations with oil-rich Libya.

Two New York senators recently asked Libyas transitional government to hold Megrahi fully accountable for the Pan Am bombing. But the head of the semiautonomous Scottish government, First Minister Alex Salmond, told reporters that only his administration would have the legal right to demand Megrahis extradition turn to page 10from page 1 and that it had no intention of doing so, as he had abided by the conditions set when he was released from jail in 2009.

The only people with any authority in this matter are the Scottish government, who have jurisdiction on the matter he is a Scottish prisoner under license and the new Libyan Transitional Council, who are the new duly constituted legal authority in Libya, Salmond said.

We have never had and do not have any intention of asking for the extradition of Mr. Megrahi, Salmond told Britains Sky News television, adding that those demanding Megrahis extradition should allow the bomber to die in peace.

Under the terms of his release, the bomber was ordered to live at his home and provide a monthly medical report. Scottish officials overseeing his parole said Monday that they had been in contact with his family, with the government saying in a statement that his medical condition is consistent with someone suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

On Sunday rebel transitional government Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi told journalists in Tripoli that the renewed demands for punishment had no meaning, because Megrahi had already been tried and convicted.

But he appeared to backtrack Monday, saying officials knew the issue was important to some governments but that any discussions would have to wait until an elected government was in place. His answer reflected the many issues the new Libyan government will have to face, following a Gadhafi regime that had alienated much of the world.

Abdel-Nasser al-Megrahi, meanwhile, said his brother was unconscious most of the time, occasionally awakening and asking for his mother. He described him as being in a coma.

It is natural for him to be with his family and his mother, said the brother. Anyone, either Libyan or Scottish, would have mercy.

Little has ever been known about Megrahi. At his trial, he was described as the airport security chief for Libyan intelligence, and witnesses reported him negotiating deals to buy equipment for Libyas secret service and military.

The bombing that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie was one of the deadliest terror attacks in modern history.

Copyright The Daily Star 2011.