Lockerbie bomber ‘critical in Libya hospital’

TRIPOLI, April 14, 2012 (AFP)

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie plane bombing, has been hospitalised in Tripoli in critical condition, a source close to his family said on Saturday.

“Abdelbaset has been in hospital since yesterday and his condition is critical,” the source told AFP.

“He was admitted on Friday when his health became not so good,” the source said, adding that Megrahi’s relatives were at his bedside.

A Scottish court in 2001 convicted Megrahi of the 1988 bombing that killed 270 people, but he was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 and allowed to return to Libya.

Doctors said at the time that he had terminal cancer and had only three months to live.