Lockerbie bomber protests his innocence

The Libyan intelligence agent sentenced to life in prison for the Lockerbie bombing has reaffirmed his innocence in an interview published today.

‘‘God is my witness that I am innocent, I have never committed any crime and I have no connection to this issue,’’ Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi said in an interview with Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

He was speaking from his prison in the Netherlands.

Scottish judges in the nine-month trial ruled on January 31 that al-Megrahi planted the bomb on the flight in an unaccompanied suitcase from Malta. The bombing of Flight 103 killed 270 people.

The newspaper said al-Megrahi wanted his message of innocence to reach every human being. ‘‘I swear to God that I have never seen any suitcase nor I did I put any suitcase (on the plane).’’

Al-Megrahi’s alleged accomplice, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted and returned to a hero’s welcome in Libya.

The London-based newspaper quoted al-Megrahi as denying earlier media reports that he was on a hunger strike, saying instead that he was fasting ‘‘to be closer to God to lift the injustice done to him.’’

Muslims usually fast from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan, but some fast extra days during the year.

Al-Megrahi also challenged the testimony of a Maltese shopkeeper who identified him as the man who purchased the clothes wrapped around the bomb.

‘‘This Maltese man, since his first testimony, said I was 50 years old. At that time I was in my 30s. He said I was black, then he changed his testimony before the court saying I was not black,’’ al-Megrahi said.