Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie Pam-Am jumbo jet bombing, killing 270, died yesterday in Libya, leaving unanswered doubts about his guilt and the Malta connection in the terrorist incident.

The 60-year-old succumbed to cancer three years after he was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds. At the time, he was not expected to live for more than three months.

Convicted in 2001, Mr al-Megrahi had unsuccessfully appealed and dropped a second appeal shortly before the controversial decision by Scotland to allow him to return to Tripoli.

Investigators had claimed that an unaccompanied suitcase containing the bomb that destroyed the aircraft had started its journey from Malta on a flight to Frankfurt, a claim the Maltese government has persistently denied.

According to the investigators, the suitcase also contained fragments of clothing made by a manufacturer in Malta and sold from a shop in Sliema. The trail had eventually led them to Mr al-Megrahi.

But fresh evidence on the Lockerbie bombing, which emerged in March, shed serious doubts on Malta’s link and maintained Mr al-Megrahi could have suffered a miscarriage of justice. He had received a hero’s welcome when he arrived home but his release also sparked the fury of relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie disaster.

Others, however, believed he was not guilty of the bombing, arguing he may have been used as a scapegoat by the regime and Mr al-Megrahi too wished to live to see the day his innocence was proven.

Jim Swire, whose daughter died at Lockerbie, called his death a “very sad event”.

A Libyan intelligence officer, Mr al-Megrahi always denied any responsibility for the bombing of Flight 103 from Heathrow, the deadliest terrorist incident on British soil. He had said he would release new information about the atrocity but little had emerged until he died yesterday.

A report by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, revealed recently, argued that had certain information been shared with the defence team the outcome of the trial could have been different. It shed doubt on the credibility of a key Maltese witness, Sliema shopkeeper Tony Gauci who had indicated Mr al-Megrahi as the man he sold clothes to and fragments of which were found in the remains of the suitcase that contained the bomb.

The review commission’s report casts doubts on the credibility of Mr Gauci’s testimony, a determining factor for the prosecution, confirming media reports that he had been compensated by the US State Department for his evidence.

Calls have since been for Malta to clear its name but some argue that no conclusive evidence had ever proven the bomb had indeed left from here and that the country had never been accused of aiding terrorists.

The government has said it would continue to stick to its long-held stand that the Lockerbie bomb did not leave from Luqa airport.