Who was Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and when did he die?

ABDELBASET al-Megrahi was charged with blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 and sending it crashing into the town of Lockerbie.

The most deadly terrorist attack on British soil, which killed 270 people, is the subject of new documentary Return to Lockerbie, presented by Lorraine Kelly.

Al-Megrahi was found guilty of carrying out the Lockerbie bombingAFP – Getty

Who was the Lockerbie bomber?

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was born in Tripoli, Lybia on April 1, 1952.

Not much is known about his early life, but he spent nine months studying in Cardiff, Wales in 1971 and made many trips to the US and Great Britain.

Later he was the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA).

According to the FBI and the prosecution in the Lockerbie case, he was also an officer of Libyan intelligence service Jamahiriya el-Mukhabarat.

A Maltese shopkeeper said he sold Al-Megrahi clothing which was found wrapped around the bomb used to take down Pan Am Flight 103.

Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi admitted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing – Britain’s worst terrorist attack – in 2003 and agreed to pay £1.7billion compensation.

When did the Lockerbie bomber die?

Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the bombing of the Pan Am flight from Germany to the US, which exploded 31,000ft above Lockerbie, Scotland.

All 259 people on board were killed, along with 11 others on the ground.

The plane had departed just half an hour earlier from London Heathrow when the bomb went off, creating a lethal fireball.

Al-Megrahi was sentenced to 27 years in prison but died of cancer at the age of 60 in 2012, three years after being released on compassionate grounds — a decision which provoked fury from family members of the victims.

Will there be another appeal against his conviction?

Al-Megrahi lost an appeal against his conviction in 2002.

A second attempt was also dropped seven years later when he was released on compassionate grounds due to illness.

The family of al-Megrahi lodged a bid to appeal against his conviction five years after his death.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar joined family members and supporters to hand files to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) in Glasgow.

The SCCRC announced on May 3 that it had accepted the family’s application.

The commission said it would conduct a full review of his conviction for Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity.

The family’s move was slammed by American Peter Lowenstein, whose son Alex, 21, died in the attack.

He said: “It’s an outrage. He was found guilty.”

Megrahi’s widow Aisha and son Ali met recently with Mr Anwar.

They presented concerns over court evidence — including that given by Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, who died in 2016.

The appeal was rejected.

And in 2021 Scottish judges rejected a third appeal by al-Megrahi’s family.

Scotland’s most senior judge, Lord Carloway, the Lord Justice General said: “On the evidence at trial, a reasonable jury, properly directed, would have been entitled to return a guilty verdict.”