Libyan convicted of 1988 bombing laid to rest in Tripoli suburb during low-key burial attended by fewer than 100 mourners
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, was buried at a simple funeral on Tuesday, in vivid contrast to the rapturous welcome he was given on his return from Scotland three years ago.
Back then thousands greeted him at a stage-managed arrival at night at Tripoli airport. Hailed as a returning hero, he was met and embraced on the plane's steps by Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam.
By contrast, no officials from the current or any previous administration were in attendance as his body, wrapped in a white shroud, was placed in a grave in the dusty Zarwani cemetery in Jansour, Tripoli's westernmost suburb.
Megrahi's family insisted it was an ordinary funeral, but in fact it was less than ordinary. Normally large crowds gather for burials, as is Libyan tradition, but less than 100 mourners, including his four sons, followed the coffin as it was carried down a sandy path to the empty plot in the baking heat.
Libyans are divided over Megrahi's guilt or otherwise in the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people, but the stigma of his involvement with Gaddafi's security services lingers.
As is custom, the funeral was held promptly, the day after he died in the large villa given to him by the Gaddafi regime in a upmarket Tripoli suburb, and his wife, Aisha, and one daughter remained at home.
After his body was washed it was taken to the graveside where an Iman said traditional prayers and mourners chanted Allah Akhbar (God is Great).
The tomb, covered now in brown earth and marked with four grey breeze blocks, marks the end of a journey that began in Sabha, hundreds of miles to the south in the Sahara.
Megrahi's tribe was close to Gaddafi's, one reason why so many members were chosen for key posts in the dictator's security services.
"We are just ordinary people, this was an ordinary funeral," said his cousin, Mohamed Rashed, 52, who worked with Megrahi at Libyan airlines, but said he had no role in the former regime's security apparatus. "I hope that the truth will be revealed. We asked him [shortly before he died] 'do you wish for the truth to come out?' and he said 'Yes I do'."
Dr Rashed, sporting a grey beard and dark glasses and dressed in a blue waistcoat and a traditional brown flowing coat, said his cousin had been ignored by officialdom.
"No officials came today. Only journalists. Too many. We are sad that he is dead, but we are not sad about the new political situation, the new freedom," he said.
He insisted Megrahi had no interest in politics. "As a family, we are just like anybody else. When we would sit down as a family Abdelbaset was not talking about politics, he was talking about anything, watching TV, he supported Libya Tihad [a Tripoli football team]. He was kind with his friends, with his family, he was religious, he memorised parts of the Qur'an."
Like thousands of Libyans, the Megrahis are adjusting to the new, uncertain political climate, where ties with the former regime are automatically suspect.
"He was innocent, I am sure of it," said another cousin, Ashur al-Zuwam. Clad in a black shirt and trousers and wearing sandals encrusted with the sandy dust of the cemetery, he added: "When Abdelbaset first got back he went to his mother and said, 'mother, if I am guilty of this, then you should not forgive me'. This shows he was innocent."
As the only person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Megrahi's death may remove the one man who knows the truth about who was responsible. Libya's ruling National Transitional Council has pledged to investigate the case, but refuses British police permission to travel to Libya to assist.
Many ordinary Libyans are happy to forget their tortured past, not least the sanctions and pariah status into which their country was plunged after Megrahi was linked with the 1988 bombing.
After Megrahi was convicted at a special court in the Netherlands in 2001 he served his sentence in prison in Scotland, until he was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Zuwam insisted Megrahi had not consented to the hero's welcome foisted on him by Gaddafi on his return from Scotland in August 2009.
"After the revolution they said he was one of Gaddafi's soldiers, but I don't know, maybe the regime used him. In his last months he was happy to be with God. He was pleased also that he could come back to Libya to die."