Lockerbie Bomber al-Megrahi Close to Death: Reports

Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, freed and sent back to Libya by the Scottish government in 2009, is nearing death and drifting in and out of a coma, according to reports.

CNN reported Sunday the Libyan national was at death's door and in the care of his family in Tripoli.

Much to the outrage of the families of the victims of the 1988 bombing, Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds as he was suffering from terminal cancer and supposedly had less than three months to live. But he is still alive two years later.

Of late, there have been demands that Megrahi be extradited back to Britain or made to stand trial in the United States, home of most of the Lockerbie victims.

According to CNN, Megrahi was comatose and being fed oxygen. As the Gaddafi regime fell in Tripoli, Megrahi and his family have apparently been left high and dry. His son, Khaled, told the channel that there was nobody around to advise them on Megrahi's health.

There is no doctor. There is nobody to ask. We don't have any phone line to call anybody.

Megrahi returned to Libya in 2009 to a hero's welcome, and was personally received by one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons. He had been sentenced in 2001 to a minimum of 27 years in jail.

A Pan American Airways aircraft flying from London Heathrow to New York's John F. Kennedy was destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988.

All aboard the Boeing 747–121 aircraft, 243 passengers and 16 crew members, were killed when the plane broke apart in the explosion on fell on houses in the town. Eleven Lockerbie residents also were killed.

Megrahi was the only person convicted in the case.