PrintAugust 29, 2011
Abandoned by Gaddafi, Lockerbie Bomber near death in Tripoli
Little more than one week ago, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi celebrated the second anniversary of his release from prison amid the sound of gunfire in the besieged city of Tripoli. The convicted Lockerbie Bomber has lived well past the three months that doctors and Scottish officials projected when he was freed to return to his native Libya. Colonel Gaddafi had arranged for his friend to receive the very best of care which included Abiraterone a costly new hormone based drug developed in London, but not yet approved for use by the NHS.
With the fall of Tripoli and Gaddafi's escape to Zimbabwe, al-Megrahi was left behind to fend for himself. The UK Daily Mail reports:
The Lockerbie bomber was today tracked down in Tripoli lying in a coma and reportedly close to death.Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the murder of 270 people in the 1988 airliner bombing, is surviving on an intravenous drip in a room in his family's palatial villa.
But family members said that he was close to death and that they had been given no help since Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi was ousted by rebels.
Now that Tripoli is in rebel hands al-Megrahi's son claims "There is no doctor. There is nobody to ask. We don't have any phone line to call anybody." The family's villa has been ransacked and stripped of anything of value, including al-Megrahi's medication.
CNN Reporter Nic Robertson, who visited the family home where Megrahi is bed-ridden, said: 'His face is sunken... I was shocked when I walked into the room and saw him in such a state.'His son told me he has no idea how much longer his father has to live. He said he should be able to live his last few days in peace at home because he's going to die either way, at home or in Scotland.'
Nearly two months ago it was revealed that the Obama administration was working on a secret plan to have al-Megrahi captured by the rebels and handed over to U.S. Special Forces to be returned to America for a show trial aimed at improving Mr. Obama's falling poll numbers.
With the overthrow of Gaddafi, U.S. and British politicians have called for him to be extradited to live out the rest of his sentence in prison.But the National Transitional Council, the rebel group that toppled Gaddafi, today said it would not allow Megrahi to be extradited.'We will not give any Libyan citizen to the West,' NTC Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi said.
It now appears that the infamous Lockerbie Bomber has only a matter of days left to live. For all of the bluster from self-serving politicians in the two years since al-Megrahi's release, the man who was convicted of the murder of 270 innocent people for his role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 will soon be facing final judgment for his crimes.
August 29, 2011
