ABDELBASET Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi has consistently denied being responsible for the worst mass murder in British legal history.
The Libyan intelligence agent was convicted in 2001 of killing 270 people in the Lockerbie bombing.
Former Libyan Airlines security steward Al Megrahi, 56, was first indicted for the outrage in 1991 after a lengthy investigation by UK and US polic
e forces.
He was accused along with fellow Libyan Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah.
Al Megrahi had spent years on the FBI's "most wanted" list, with US detectives claiming his airline work was cover for a role with the Libyan Secret Service.
After the formal accusation, there followed years of lengthy diplomatic bargaining with Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi before the pair were handed over for trial.
It took the intervention of South African president Nelson Mandela before the Libyan authorities agreed to transfer the men to a court in a neutral country.
Al Megrahi and Fhimah eventually stood trial in 2000, conducted under Scots law at a specially convened court at Camp Zeist in The Netherlands.
It was one of the most complex trials yet staged, involving 84 days of evidence from 230 witnesses, lasting nearly seven months and costing an estimated £75 million.
During the proceedings, married Al Megrahi was watched by his then teenage son and daughter, who were at the front of the public gallery separated by a glass wall.
Trial judges were convinced by prosecutors that he had bought clothes from a shop in Malta which were packed around the bomb before it was placed on board the plane on the Mediterranean island.
Al Megrahi was eventually sentenced to 27 years, while his co-accused was cleared.
In an interview published shortly after his conviction, he denied he was responsible for the bombing.
He told Arabic daily Asharq Al-Aswat: "God is my witness that I am innocent.
"I have never committed any crime and I have no connection to this issue.
"I swear to God that I have never seen any suitcase, nor did I put any suitcase (on the plane)."
Al Megrahi first arrived on Scottish soil in 2002 after transferring from his cell in The Netherlands and was placed in Barlinnie prison in Glasgow.
He is currently locked up in HMP Greenock.
A first appeal by Al Megrahi against his conviction was rejected in March 2002.
His lawyers then applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to re-examine his case.
He was given a fresh chance to clear his name in June last year when the SCCRC referred his case back to appeal judges for a second time.
The review body said there were six grounds – some put forward by the defence, and others resulting from its own investigations – where it believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.
In October 2008 Al Megrahi won a legal victory in the latest stage of his bid to have his conviction overturned.
Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled that the Libyan's appeal could have a wide-ranging focus, looking beyond the issues raised by the SCCRC when it suggested he may have suffered a miscarriage of justice.
The decision came after Al Megrahi's lawyers lodged full grounds of appeal earlier this year and argued that the full appeal should include all the points pertinent to the case.
Al Megrahi has had a string of health problems in recent years.
In July 2003 he was taken from his cell at Barlinnie to the city's Royal Infirmary after complaining of stomach pains.
He returned to the jail the same day after undergoing tests for a suspected stomach ulcer.
In September 2008, Al Megrahi he was taken from HMP Greenock to the Inverclyde Royal Hospital for tests.
The following month it was confirmed that he had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer which had spread to other parts of his body and was at an advanced stage.
After the diagnosis, he applied to the High Court in Edinburgh to be freed pending the outcome of his appeal hearing, which is due to take place next year.
His defence team argued there was a "compelling case" for releasing the cancer-stricken Libyan.
But prosecutors argued the gravity of the offence meant he should remain in jail.
Despite the devastating diagnosis, Al Megrahi remained determined to carry on the fight to clear his name.
Today he was told that fight will have to continue from behind bars.
