Lockerbie role exaggerated: Megrahi

TRIPOLI: Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, said his role in the attack had been exaggerated and the truth about what really happened would emerge soon.

Al-Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison two years ago because he was suffering from terminal cancer, spoke to Reuters from a bed at his home in Tripoli.

Looking frail and his breathing laboured, he said he had only a few months, at most, left to live.

"The facts (about the Lockerbie bombing) will become clear one day and hopefully in the near future. In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced," he told Reuters Television over the pinging of medical monitors around his bed.

"The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months."

Al-Megrahi was found guilty of bombing Pan Am flight 103 while it was en route from London to New York on Dec. 21, 1988. All 259 people aboard the plane were killed and 11 others on the ground in Lockerbie also died from falling wreckage.

Al-Megrahi, who had served as an intelligence agent during the rule of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, denied any role in suspected human rights abuses under Gaddafi's administration. "All my work was administrative.

I never harmed Libyans," he said." I didn't harm anyone. I've never harmed anyone in my life."

He called the trial that led to his conviction a farce. The proceedings were held in a Dutch court under Scottish jurisdiction.

Copyright Reuters, 2011