Megrahi is 'very ill', says son

The son of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi said his father is 'very ill'
12 April 2012

The son of the Lockerbie bomber has said he wants the people of Scotland and the UK to see how ill his father is.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground.

He was ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years before being released from a Scottish prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

On Tuesday night, his son Khalid al-Megrahi said the family had allowed access to the BBC to their home in Tripoli to see how the cancer is affecting him.

In an interview with the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, he said: "He's very ill and he's now in deep sleep and he's stopped eating and we try to support him just by sitting next to him and we pray to God to stay as long as...

"I want everybody, especially in UK and specific in Scotland, to see my dad, how he's doing. He's so sick, because I see in the news some people say he's not sick and some people say he's not at home and some people say he's run away. But I would say I want you to come to see my dad and he can't move from his room."

The footage showed Megrahi lying on a bed with a machine monitoring his heartbeat. Last month Megrahi's relatives allowed a reporting team from American news channel CNN to enter the house and film him in his bed.

Speaking about the Lockerbie bombing, Khalid said: "I really feel sorry because we are the same, we have family and we have brother, we have sister and we feel sorry about all the people die but we want to know the truth as well."

Speaking on BBC Reporting Scotland from Tripoli, Mr Bowen said: "The son I spoke to has spent a lot of time in Scotland, he told me, and he speaks English well as a result of that and so he certainly believes that their message that he's a, sick, and b, innocent and c, dying, needs to get through."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Mr Al-Megrahi is an extremely sick man, dying of terminal prostate cancer, and matters regarding his medical condition should really be left there. It is in no one's interest for there to be a running commentary on Mr Al-Megrahi's medical condition, and we have no intention of providing one. As is abundantly clear, Scotland's Justice Secretary granted compassionate release to Mr Al-Megrahi according to the due process of Scots law, and without regard to any other factor."

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