Megrahi 'very sick', says his son

[This is the headline over a report just published on the BBC News website.  It reads in part:]

The son of the Lockerbie bomber has told the BBC that his family believe he is innocent of the atrocity and that one day everyone will know the truth.

The BBC was invited to the home of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

His son Khalid al-Megrahi said he wanted to show the people of Scotland how sick his father was. (...)

Megrahi's son told the BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen: "He is so sick. If you see him now and compare with before you will see his body has become very ill and weak."

He said Megrahi had stopped eating and was in a deep sleep most of the time.

Khalid al-Megrahi said: "I want everybody, especially in the UK and in Scotland to see my dad. 

"On the news some people say he is not sick and he is not at home. 

"I want you to see him, he cannot move from his room."

His son also insisted that Megrahi was not guilty of the Lockerbie atrocity.

He said: "He believes and we know that everybody will see the truth. I know my father is innocent and one day his innocence will come out."

Asked about the people who died in the bombing, he said: "We feel sorry about all the people who died. We want to know who did this bad thing. We want to know the truth as well."

[A report from The Press Association news agency contains the following:]

On Tuesday night, his son Khalid al-Megrahi said the family had allowed access to the BBC to their home in Tripoli to see how the cancer is affecting him.

In an interview with the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, he said: "He's very ill and he's now in deep sleep and he's stopped eating and we try to support him just by sitting next to him and we pray to God to stay as long as...

"I want everybody, especially in UK and specific in Scotland, to see my dad, how he's doing. He's so sick, because I see in the news some people say he's not sick and some people say he's not at home and some people say he's run away. But I would say I want you to come to see my dad and he can't move from his room."

The footage showed Megrahi lying on a bed with a machine monitoring his heartbeat. Last month Megrahi's relatives allowed a reporting team from American news channel CNN to enter the house and film him in his bed.

Speaking about the Lockerbie bombing, Khalid said: "I really feel sorry because we are the same, we have family and we have brother, we have sister and we feel sorry about all the people die but we want to know the truth as well."

Speaking on BBC Reporting Scotland from Tripoli, Mr Bowen said: "The son I spoke to has spent a lot of time in Scotland, he told me, and he speaks English well as a result of that and so he certainly believes that their message that he's a, sick, and b, innocent and c, dying, needs to get through."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Mr Al-Megrahi is an extremely sick man, dying of terminal prostate cancer, and matters regarding his medical condition should really be left there. It is in no one's interest for there to be a running commentary on Mr Al-Megrahi's medical condition, and we have no intention of providing one. As is abundantly clear, Scotland's Justice Secretary granted compassionate release to Mr Al-Megrahi according to the due process of Scots law, and without regard to any other factor."