Abdel Basit Ali al-Megrahi

Abdel Basit Ali al-Megrahi ( Arabic عبد الباسط المقرحي, DMG ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ al-Miqraḥī ; * April 1, 1952 in Tripoli ; † May 20, 2012 ibid) was a Libyan intelligence officer . He became known through the Lockerbie attack on December 21, 1988 and the process that followed.

Life

Abdel Basit received his education in the USA and Great Britain . He later became head of security at Libyan Airlines .

process

In November 1991, almost three years after the attack, charges were brought against Al-Megrahi by the US Attorney General and the Scottish Lord Advocate . Libya, however, refused to extradite him because they wanted to hold the trial against him in Libya, but this was rejected by the Americans and the British. In 1999 a trial was finally reached in the Netherlands , where Megrahi had been under arrest for several years.

The trial began on May 3, 2000. The charges on which he was charged were murder, conspiracy and involvement in the attack. On 31 January 2001 he was sentenced to life imprisonment, to which Abdel appeal lodged, which was rejected on March 14 of 2002. On November 24, 2003, he brought an action before the Court of Justice in Glasgow , but this step also failed.

release

Al-Megrahi was taken to hospital on September 19, 2008, where he received a medical examination. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in October of the same year . This was also the publicly announced reason why Al-Megrahi was pardoned on August 20, 2009, especially since the doctors predicted a maximum life expectancy of three months for him, as his cancer was now in its terminal stages. When he arrived in Libya at the airport in Tripoli, he was greeted enthusiastically and personally received with congratulations by President Muammar al-Gaddafi . This triggered violent outrage, especially in the USA.

Almost a year after his release, the British and Americans questioned the original forecast of a maximum life expectancy of three months, as Al-Megrahi was still alive after twelve months. Newspapers revealed that a major reason for the misdiagnosis of life expectancy appears to be the failure to take into account cancer drugs available today. With these drugs, the remaining life expectancy can be increased. Four American senators are now calling for Scotland to hand over the opinion on which the Libyan was released to the Americans. In the letter they asked, among other things, to disclose the names, the level of training and the specialization of the doctors who examined al-Megrahi. It was also revealed that the release was part of a long diplomatic intrigue between the British and Libyan governments that ultimately gave the oil company BP access to large oil reserves off the Libyan coast.

Al-Megrahi died on May 20, 2012 of complications from his cancer.

Individual evidence

1. ^ After release from prison: Gaddafi receives Lockerbie assassin in Tripoli ; in Die Welt on August 22, 2009, accessed July 30, 2013.
2. ↑ The astonishingly long life of the Lockerbie assassin ; in NZZ from August 16, 2010.
3. ↑ Lockerbie assassin Megrahi is dead ; Spiegel Online from May 20, 2012.