African solidarity
Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi has madehis first public appearance since receiving a hero’s welcome on hisreturn to Libya.
Megrahi, looking frail in a wheelchair,received a standing ovation from a group of African MPs in the hospitalwhere he is receiving care for cancer.
But after five minutes he began to cough and signalled he wanted to leave.
The Scottish authorities freed Megrahi last month on compassionate grounds because he is terminally ill.
He is the only person to be convicted of the blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people.
His release and subsequent welcome in Libya caused a political storm in the UK.
Opposition groups have accused the British government of tying his release to a trade deal.
TheBBC’s Rana Jawad, in Tripoli, says a nurse wheeled Megrahi to a smallstage in the lecture hall at the city’s medical centre.
Heappeared to be frail, wearing a surgeon’s mask that covered most of hisface and a colourful, sequined traditional skullcap, she says.