Jump to content

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi (1 April 1952 – 20 May 2012) was a Libyan man who was convicted for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Megrahi was the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, Libya's national airline, and was accused of being a spy. He was born in Tripoli.[1]

Megrahi was the only person convicted in connection with bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which happened on 21 December 1988. He was held under armed guard in Libya from 1991 until 1999, when he was moved to the Netherlands. His trial began in May 2000 in a special court in the Netherlands. On 31 January 2001, he was convicted of 270 counts of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

He was held in Scottish prisons until he was released on compassionate grounds on 20 August 2009 because he had terminal prostate cancer. He returned to Tripoli that day and died of the disease there.[2]

References

[change | change source]
  1. BBC obituary
  2. Telegraph obituary