Lockerbie bomber Al Megrahi found in coma in Tripoli

Dubai: Lockerbie bomber Abdul Basset Al Megrahi has been tracked down in Tripoli, slipping in and out of coma in a palatial villa in north parts of the Libyan capital, CNN reported early Monday.

Al Megrahi is only being kept alive with oxygen and an intravenous drip, according to relatives attending him at the villa, which they said had been ransacked by looters who plundered all his medicine.

Al Megrahi, last seen at a televised rally in Tripoli last month alongside Muammar Gaddafi, was tracked down by CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson. “He appears to be a shell of the man that he was, far sicker than he appeared before … at death’s door,” Robertson reported.

Al Megrahi’s son, Khaled, told the broadcaster: "There is no doctor, there is nobody to ask and we don't have a phone line to call anybody." Al Megrahi may be the last person alive who knows who in the Libyan government ordered the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 in the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988.

Al Megrahi was freed from prison in 2009 in Scotland after serving eight years of a life sentence. Doctors treating him for prostate cancer gave him three months to live. Authorities released him on compassionate grounds.

On Sunday, the Libyan National Transition Council (NTC) government said it will not deport Al Megrahi. New York senators on August 22 asked the Libyan transitional government to hold Al Megrahi fully accountable for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.

But the transitional government Justice Minister Mohammad Al Alagi told journalists in Tripoli that the request by American senators had “no meaning” because Al Megrahi had already been tried and convicted. “We will not hand over any Libyan citizen. It was Gaddafi who handed over Libyan citizens,” he said, referring to the government's decision to turn Al Megrahi over to a Scottish court for trial.

New York Senator Charles Schumer had encouraged the new Libyan leadership to hold Al Megrahi accountable. “A new Libya can send a strong statement to the world by declaring it will no longer be a haven for this convicted terrorist,” he said.

Scottish officials overseeing Al Megrahi’s parole have said they want to contact him now that the fighting between Libyan forces and rebels has reached Tripoli.

Al Megrahi is the only person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Britain’s worst terrorist attack. His release after serving eight years of a life sentence infuriated the families of many victims, who suspected Britain's real motive was to improve relations with oil-rich Libya.