Yes, it seems as if the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi is comatose, near death and will probably take the secrets of the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 with him soon. CNN found al-Megrahi in his palatial Tripoli villa on Sunday, surviving on oxygen and an intravenous drip, under the care of his family.

Al-Megrahi was controversially freed from a prison in Scotland in 2009. He had served a mere eight years of his life sentence for blowing up the Pan Am jet, killing all 259 passengers on board, and 11 in the town of Lockerbie below.

Al-Megrahi may be one of the last people alive who knows exactly which Libyan government member may have authorised the bombing.

Khaled al-Megrahi, his son, said of his father:

We just give him oxygen. Nobody gives us any advice. There is no doctor. There is nobody to ask. We don’t have any phone line to call anybody.

Al-Megrahi enraged many people by living for far longer than he was “supposed to”. He even made a public appearance with Gaddafi in July. Although he was confined to a wheelchair, this only fueled public outrage in the UK.

He has always maintained his innocence.

With the recent ousting of Gaddafi by the rebel forces, there were calls from across the Atlantic for al-Megrahi to be sent back to prison.

This is highly unlikely though, and the National Transitional Council stated firmly yesterday that it won’t allow the dying al-Megrahi to be extradited.

NTC Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi: “We will not give any Libyan citizen to the West.”

[Source: CNN]