Lockerbie bomber Megrahi dies

REUTERS

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, has died, his brother said.

Here are some details about Megrahi:

MEGRAHI - RELEASED FROM PRISON:

* Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for his part in blowing up New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. Judges ruled in 2003 that he must serve a minimum of 27 years before he could apply for parole.

* Megrahi denied any role in the bombing, saying he was an airline executive, not a Libyan intelligence agent as charged.

* He was held in a prison in the town of Greenock in western Scotland as he was tried and convicted under Scottish law, although the trial was held in the Netherlands.

* In November 2008, Megrahi's lawyers asked a court to free him on bail, saying he was suffering from advanced prostate cancer.

* Libya lobbied for Megrahi's release in 2009, saying in May it had applied to the Scottish government for him to be sent home as part of a prisoner transfer agreement. In July, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi asked then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for help with the case.

* Scottish authorities rejected Libya's request that Megrahi be sent back under that agreement, instead releasing him and sending him home on compassionate grounds.

* Megrahi was freed on August 20, 2009 and arrived home to a hero's welcome. The next day, Britain condemned the celebrations in Tripoli. The release also provoked an outcry in the United States since most of the 270 people killed in the bombing were American.

* In December 2010 Britain's Guardian newspaper said Gaddafi had threatened to cut trade with Britain and warned of "enormous repercussions" if the Lockerbie bomber died in jail, citing U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

* Last September a spokesman for former British prime minister Tony Blair confirmed he had visited Gaddafi in Libya in the months before the Lockerbie bomber was freed from jail, but insisted there was no impropriety in the contacts.

* Gaddafi's fall in 2011 raised hopes among some for Megrahi's extradition to Scotland or the United States. However, Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) said it had no intention of agreeing to any such request, and Scotland had no plans to make one.

PERSONAL LIFE:

* Megrahi, born in April 1952, was married with five children. His wife and children were able to visit him in prison in Scotland. He speaks Arabic and English, which he learned as a student in the United States.

* Megrahi appeared in July 2011 at a rally in support of Gaddafi, sitting in a wheelchair at a tribal meeting in Tripoli.

* He was taken to hospital last month after his health deteriorated quickly, his brother said.