Bomber claims unfounded

CLAIMS the Lockerbie bomber is close to death are “unfounded”, the local authority charged with monitoring him insisted yesterday.

East Renfrewshire Council was responding to media reports that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi had suffered a rapid deterioration in his health.

Megrahi was controversially granted compassionate release from a Scottish jail nearly 16 months ago.

Yesterday it was reported he was on a life-support machine in Libya and his family expected him to die within days. The reports said he had not been able to speak for some weeks and was now in a coma.

Last week Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi said Megrahi’s family would be suing over his “neglect” in Greenock Prison.