Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi has received 11 litres of blood in an emergency transfusion at a private hospital in Tripoli.

No one can say whether he will live or die – only God knows

But the former Libyan intelligence officer who was convicted of the 1988 airliner bombing that killed 270 people, felt strong enough to return home afterwards, his brother said.

“He is still very sick, in the final stages of a cancer which has no cure, so his days are numbered,” Abdel Hakim added.

“No one can say whether he will live or die – only God knows.”

Abdel Hakim went on to defend his brother saying he was exploited by the regime of Muammar Gaddafi who let him take the blame for a crime he did not commit. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew to New York from London.

All 259 people aboard the airliner were killed and 11 others on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie died from falling wreckage.

Britain freed Abdel Basset al-Megrahi in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from advanced terminal prostate cancer and thought to have months to live. His release angered many relatives of the victims, 189 of whom were American, and the Obama Administration criticised the decision.

A number of US politicians have pressed for his extradition to the United States, something Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council said it would not do.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, who served as an intelligence agent during Muammar Gaddafi’s rule, denied any role in suspected human rights abuses in his home country before Gaddafi’s fall and death in a popular uprising last year.

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