Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi (1952–2012) was a Libyan intelligence agent who was the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 (also known as the Lockerbie bombing), which killed 270 people. In 1991 U.S. and British courts indicted Megrahi for his involvement in the attack. Many speculated that the bombing had been retaliation for a series of confrontations between the United States and Libya in the 1980s. Notably, in 1986 the United States had bombed Libya’s capital, Tripoli.
Following negotiations overseen by the UN, Libya allowed Megrahi to be transferred to the Netherlands for a trial under Scottish jurisdiction. In 2001 Megrahi was convicted of murder, and he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole in 20 years (later raised to 27 years). In 2009, after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds, having served eight years of his sentence. He died in 2012.