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Subscribe to RSSAbdel Baset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, died after a long illness. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET: TRIPOLI - The former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people has died, his son told NBC News on Sunday. He was 60.
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi died at home after his health quickly deteriorated. "He has been suffering from cancer for a long time and God choose him," Khalid al-Magrahi told NBC.
"He was too sick to utter anything on his death bed," his brother Abdel Hakim told Reuters. "Just because Abdel Baset is dead doesn't mean the past is now erased. We will always tell the world that my brother was innocent.''
Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew to New York from London. All 259 people aboard the airliner were killed and 11 others on the ground in the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, died from falling wreckage.
Scotland freed him in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from advanced terminal prostate cancer and thought to have months to live.
Reuters
Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi speaks during an interview at his home in Tripoli on Oct. 3, 2011. He was transferred to hospital on April 13, 2012 after his health deteriorated quickly.
His release angered many relatives of the victims, 189 of whom were American, and the Obama administration criticized the decision.
Many speculated that a backdoor deal had been cut between the former regime of Moammar Gadhafi and the British government. With the fall of the Gadhafi regime in 2011, many in the U.S. and U.K. called on the new Libyan leaders to extradite Megrahi to serve out the remainder of his prison term, something Libya's ruling National Transitional Council refused to do.
The family of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi tell NBC News that he is in a coma, without medicine and near death. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
Al-Megrahi, who served as an intelligence agent during the rule of Gadhafi, denied any role in suspected human rights abuses in his home country before Gadhafi's fall and death in a popular uprising last year.
In April, al-Megrahi's condition worsened and he was taken to a private hospital to receive a transfusion of eleven liters of blood, but subsequently felt strong enough to return home.
Megrahi's older brother, Mohamed, said the funeral will be after the noon prayer on Monday. He will be buried in Al Zagawani cemetary in Janzour, 12 miles west of Tripoli. Megrahi's house was filled Sunday with family members, relatives and neighbors paying condolences, NBC News reported.
The White House said that the death would not end the quest for justice for the families of the 270 people killed.
"Megrahi's death concludes an unfortunate chapter following his release from prison in 2009 on medical grounds - a move we strongly opposed,'' said White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.
"We want to see justice for the victims of the Lockerbie bombing and their families. We will continue working with our new partners in Libya toward a full accounting of Gadhafi's horrific acts,'' Vietor said.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer on Sunday criticized the Scottish government for allowing al-Megrahi to die a free man in what he said "smelled of a deal for oil.''
Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on CNN that the death of al-Megrahi meant the full truth about the Pan Am bombing may never be known.
"Both the Scottish and British governments have not been forthcoming,'' Schumer said. "The whole deal smelled of a deal for oil for this man's freedom and that was almost blasphemy given what a horrible person he was and the terrible destruction and tragedy that he caused. I don't know if we'll ever get to the bottom of it now.''
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was in opposition when al-Megrahi was freed, said in Chicago, where he was attending the NATO summit: "I've always been clear he should never have been released from prison.
''Today is a day to remember the 270 people who lost their lives in what was an appalling terrorist act. Our thoughts should be with them and their families for the suffering they've had."
Jim Swire, the father of one of the British Lockerbie victims, said he was convinced al-Megrahi was innocent.
''I've been satisfied for some years that this man had nothing to do with the murder of my daughter and I grit my teeth every time I hear newscasters say 'Lockerbie bomber has died,'" he told BBC News television. ''This is a sad day."
NBC News, msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Am I suposed to be sad? I am glad that this evil person is no longer with us.
no we need to be relieved he is back in hell and pray all like him go back there and stay there too.
I am sad ... he shouldve been executed.
The man suffered tremendously and had to have lived in hell on earth for years at the end. So we got that going for us.
Suffered??? Not by my measurement. Every breath should have felt like he was sucking in putrid air heated to 1500 C
If only the 270 people he murdered had gotten released on compassionate grounds.
I hope it was a slow and painful death. Without the evil morphine. Now, as far as the virgins go, nobody said these virgins were women. AND I think he should be buried in the spot Bin Ladin is laid to rest.
Apparent;y the people that read msnbc are some of the most ignorant evil hateful people on earth.......
EXCUSE ME EJ if I dont have any pity for a murdering SOB and all the Musilms like him. you murder people in the name of allah and u have the nerve to call us sick!!!! when your oil is gone all you will have is your sand and your camels, we should let you starve and die thirsty and hungry. SO FFFFF UUUU
Dear ejwoodall: A little curse on you and your kind>
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your B____LS.
AND apparently you haven't looked in the mirror yet, obviously we are not sympathetic to YOUR opinions.
He should have never seen the light of day after he was sent to prison.
Now, as to those 72 virgins, yhey are going to be FAT and mega UGLY bitches who will harass him for eternity on the shore of a fiery lake.
I hope he died a painful death, and continues for eternity. The place where he is going will make- Hell look like an all-inclusive resort
You are some sick ignorant fools.
And he must be your dead buddy.
Finally.Rot in hell you sand jockey terrorist mass murdering prick.
Another brainwashed ignorant fool takes a shot a reason - and fails.
May 1000 Horny Virgin Syphillus infected toothless camels await you all dressed in Burkhas!! You SOB bastard.
I hope it was a slow and painful death. Without the evil morphine. Now, as far as the virgins go, nobody said these virgins were women. AND I think he should be buried in the spot Bin Ladin is laid to rest. (But I wouldn't want to poison the bottom feeders.)
You have to wonder how people become so ignorant that they make comments like this?
Ta da...listen up...EJ is here to enlighten us with all his "wisdom.
Compassion is for those who deserve it ... this dead a$$hole deserved to be executed for what he did POS.
RIP; May Allah bless you!
We Blacks in America should be so Brave!
May you join him on his journey to HELL.
Go way out in a field all by yourself and practice suicide bombing (live explosives) and Allah will bless you.
Not to worry, marshall law is just on the horizon. When it gets here, people like YOU are at the top of my S**T List! See ya soon!
Oh, come by my house and see what happens ... if you get passed the porch.
With only problem being that the real bombers are still alive and working for the CIA and FBI and DEA. Scottish police have admitted they were paid $2 million to plant false evidence. Why does the MSN continue the fraud. Are they that stupid? Gaddafi did not do the Lockerbie bombing. It was a DEA drug smuggling operation that went bad when Hezboolah snuck a bomb in the heroine to get even for the US shooting down an Iranian airliner that killed 300 people.
Yeh, and when you were born I understand you fell out of the ass of a camel and they had to dig for 3 days to find your stupid as*.
Pahhh ha ha ha ha ha! Now that's funny!
ej, are you just off your meds today?
And your evidence for this is???
I'm not even going to dignify that piece of S____T comment with an answer.
Since you are going to be an Allah supporter of the hate filled kind, why don't you leave the USA and move to Libya.
OR, Be held in a corral with some very large pigs.
May he rest in hell.
Rot!
.
Hope those 72 virgins are a bunch of fat, acne-ridden booger eating prepubescent trailer-trash who know their rights and will kick your ass if you f*ck with them.
You forgot to add "horny" nymphomaniacs.
Booger Eating? That is Nasty! Forgot Butt Pickin.
John Julius, shut up or I will cut off your welfare check.
May his soul burn in hell for all eternity...
The European scumbags wanted that Libyan oil so they let this piece of trash die with his family around him. You are all corrupt pieces of garbage. What about all the victims? Where is the justice for them?
Good, back to hell with you.......stay there.
This guy is an example to document the corrupt Britain, that can be bought and is bought for any money.
I hope he suffered every day of those extra years he got. execution would have been too quick for him. as for Mohamad who calls us idots, I wish him the same fate as his brother there a long and painfull death. that other POS who planned the 9/11 should be thrown off a tall building and know the agony that many of the 9/11 victums went through when they had to jump out of windows rather then burn to death. I will never forget those images
Another TURD that should be FLUSHED!
Too bad the english officials involved aren't going to hell with you...at least not yet!
Good riddance to more subhuman garbage. Hopefully the families of those he killed can finally get some closure.
Perfect EXAMPLE of FLESH EATING Bacteria!