“He is very, very sick,” his brother Abdel Nasser al-Megrahi told reporters outside Abdel Basset’s house in one of Tripoli’s wealthy neighborhoods.
Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond also on Monday dismissed calls that Megrahi be extradited to the United States or returned to prison in Britain, saying instead he should be allowed to die in peace. Salmond said Scotland had “no interest” in seeking the extradition of Megrahi — who technically remains a Scottish prisoner — because he has adhered to his release conditions.
Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001 but was freed from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after doctors estimated that he had three months to live. In July, when the rebels were slowly advancing toward the capital on three fronts, he appeared sitting in a wheelchair at a rally supporting Moammar Gaddafi’s now-ousted government.
His brother said that the family had been in contact with Scottish authorities on a regular basis and that they knew that Megrahi is critically ill. “They are still responsible for my brother,” he said, insisting that Scotland should send medication and aid for Megrahi to keep him alive. Scotland has never demanded his return to prison.
“My brother cannot speak, and when he does, he asks for his mother,” Abdel Nasser al-Megrahi said. He added that his family has faith in the new government, which is made up of rebel leaders and dissidents. “Most of them are former officials in the Gaddafi regime,” he said. “They all know Megrahi and will not extradite him to any country.”
The attack took place on Dec. 21, 1988, when a bomb exploded on a plane flying from London to New York, killing all 259 onboard and 11 on the ground. Megrahi was convicted in a Scottish court set up in the Netherlands and was sentenced to serve a minimum of 27 years of a life sentence.
Megrahi’s early release outraged many of the victims’ family members and friends. Last week, New York’s two senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats, asked Libya’s transitional government to hold Megrahi fully accountable for the Pan Am bombing.
On Sunday, the justice minister for the rebels’ Transitional National Council, Mohammed al-Alagi, told journalists in Tripoli that the request had “no meaning” because Megrahi had already been tried and convicted.
Megrahi’s brother agreed. “This is not a Gaddafi case, but a Libyan one,” he said. “Nothing has changed.”
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