Libyan Lockerbie bomber funeral dueBy BBC | Monday, May 21   2012 at  12:16

The freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi at a hospital in Tripoli, Libya on September 9, 2009. He died May 20 in Tripoli. PHOTO | FILE 

The funeral of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is due to take place in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, later.

Megrahi, the only person convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing above Scotland which killed 270 people, died at his home in Libya on Sunday.

He was convicted by a special court in the Netherlands in 2001.

He was freed from Scottish jail in 2009 on compassionate grounds as he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

His brother Abdulhakim said on Sunday that Megrahi's health had deteriorated quickly and he died at home in Tripoli.

Megrahi's release sparked the fury of many of the relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. The US - whose citizens accounted for 189 of the dead - also criticised the move.

But some of the relatives of those killed believe he was innocent.

In Libya, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council said Megrahi's death would not close the Lockerbie file.