22 May 2012

Lockerbie bomber buried

11:07 am on 22 May 2012

The only person convicted over the Lockerbie airliner bombing in December 1988 has been buried in a private ceremony in Libya.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was freed from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds three years ago, died of cancer at his home in Tripoli on Sunday.

His quiet, private burial was mainly attended by family members, a sharp contrast to the loud celebrations that greeted his return to Libya from prison in 2009.

He was convicted by a special court in the Netherlands in 2001.

Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, always denied any responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988.

All 259 people aboard the plane, which was travelling from London to New York, were killed, along with 11 others on the ground.