Lockerbie bomber: Hero for some, murderer for many

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, who died aged 60 on Sunday, was hailed as a hero by some in Moamer Kadhafi's Libya, but reviled as a mass murderer by families of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

The Libyan, who maintained his innocence until the very end, is thought to have taken to the grave many secrets of the bombing attack on a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

However, in a December interview Megrahi told several British newspapers that a book being written by investigative journalist John Ashton would clear his name.

"I am an innocent man" he told the papers, including The Times and the Daily Mail.

"I will not be giving any more interviews, and no more cameras will be allowed into my home," he said. "The book will clear my name."

On Sunday, soon after his death was announced, his brother Mohammad insisted the man dubbed as the "Lockerbie bomber" was not guilty of the attack.

"All the darkness of the universe will never cover the flame of the candle which is the truth," Mohammad Megrahi told AFP.

"Within the last decade more than 10 babies have been born in this family of Abdelbaset Megrahi. One day these Abdelbaset babies will get an apology from the world."

Megrahi suffered from prostate cancer and was hospitalised for a few days in April before he was sent back home to be with his family. On April 16, his other brother Abdelhakim al-Megrahi, said his days "were numbered."

A Scottish court in 2001 convicted Megrahi of the 1988 attack on Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, but he was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after doctors said he had only three months to live.

British Prime Minister David Cameron had criticised his release as a "terrible mistake," and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had said he would like to see him "back in jail behind bars."

Most of those killed in the bombing of the Boeing 747 jet headed from London to New York were Americans. All 259 passengers and crew were killed, along with 11 people on the ground.

On his release on August 20, 2009, Megrahi was greeted as a hero in Kadhafi's Libya by some, after having served eight years of a minimum 27-year sentence for his role in the bombing.

An unnamed Libyan official in the regime of Kadhafi had at the time said Megrahi was a "hero who sacrificed himself to lift the (international) embargo on our country."

"To allow him to spend the remainder of his days in his homeland is the least that Libya can offer this man who has been the victim of an international injustice."

His return to Libya was the first time he had set foot on his native soil since 1999, when he and co-accused Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah were handed over by Libya for trial after years of diplomatic wrangling.

The pair were originally indicted in 1991 for the Pan Am attack following an investigation by British and US police. Fhimah was later acquitted.

At his trial, which started in 2000 and was held in the Netherlands under Scots law, Megrahi, a fluent English speaker, cut an aristocratic figure in the dock. The tall, lean and serious man turned out in a long traditional Libyan robe.

He was working as chief of airline security for Libyan Arab Airlines in Malta at the time of the attack.

But US detectives claimed his airline work served as a cover for a role with the Libyan Secret Service.

Crucial evidence against Megrahi came from a shopkeeper in Malta who identified him as the man who bought clothing linked to the suitcase containing the bomb.

In his December interview with British dailies, Megrahi claimed that he had "never seen" the Maltese shopkeeper.

"I never bought clothes from him," he added. "He dealt with me very wrongly. I have never seen him in my life before he came to court."

According to Megrahi, US agencies "led the way" in securing his conviction.

During his trial Megrahi had been supported by some British relatives of people who died in the Pan Am attack -- but many in the United States strongly opposed his release.

"This man is a mass murderer," said Susan Cohen, whose daughter died in the bombing. "I'm sick of hearing about compassion and sympathy. If the man is ill, he can get treatment in prison. If we send him back, he'll be a hero."

john tyler chuck elisabeth hasselbeck fran drescher scarlett o hara pat sajak vanna white