Al-Megrahi death denied

A LAWYER for Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi has denied a report he had died, two months after being freed from a Scottish jail.

Sky News television, quoting unidentified sources, said there were reports that Megrahi had died.

He was freed from a Scottish prison and returned to Libya on August 20 on the grounds that he was dying of prostate cancer.

“It’s not true . . . he’s alive and I know that for a fact,” Scottish lawyer Tony Kelly told AFP, while declining to give details of the Libyan’s condition.

Sky later dropped reports of his death.

Megrahi, 57, was convicted in January 2001 at an extraordinary Scottish court convened in the Netherlands.

He mounted an unsuccessful appeal in 2002 and in 2007 his case was sent for a second appeal, which his lawyers dropped shortly before his release on compassionate grounds in August.

Megrahi was admitted to hospital at the start of September, less than a fortnight after his release when he was given less than three months to live.