20101206
africanews

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said that freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi would sue the British government for "false imprisonment", the Daily Mirror said on Monday. Gaddafi said the case against Megrahi had "been created by" former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and ex-US President Ronald Reagan.

The Libyan leader went further to say that CIA agents had been behind the 1988 terror attack on the Pan Am plane which blew up over Scotland killing 270.

Speaking via video link to an audience at the London School of Economics he said: “The charges directed towards Libya were based on unfounded evidence in an attempt to weaken the Libyan Revolution and limit its resources and abilities.”

He added: “After he passes away his family will demand compensation because he was deliberately neglected.”

The Scottish Government dismissed the claims last night. A spokesman added: “The Scottish Government does not doubt the conviction of al-Megrahi. He was given the same high standard of NHS care as any other prisoner.”

Ex-Libyan agent al-Megrahi, 58, who has cancer, was released on compassionate grounds in August 2009 by the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill.