Lockerbie bomber Megrahi fights for life after second blood transfusion

THE man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing remained critically ill in hospital earlier tonight after undergoing a second emergency blood transfusion, his family said.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the former Libyan agent convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, was admitted to hospital in Tripoli on Friday after his health began to deteriorate.

His son, Khaled, said: “My dad’s health is very bad and has been worsening. He is on his last breath. I don’t think he can make it this time.”

Al-Megrahi’s brother, Abdulhakim, said the family had to ask volunteers at a nearby mosque to donate blood after the hospital ran out of supplies for an 11-litre transfusion. He said his brother remained semi-conscious, “sometimes speaking then slipping into sleep”.

Al-Megrahi was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer in October 2008 and released from prison in Scotland on humanitarian grounds less than a year later. Doctors said he had just three months to live.

The Scottish Government’s decision to free the only man convicted of one of the greatest terrorist atrocities in British history provoked outrage among some relatives of the 270 people who died in the attack.