Brother: Lockerbie bomber Megrahi has died in Libya Updated at 5:35 a.m. ET: TRIPOLI - The former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie, Scotland, bombing that killed 270 people has died, his brother said on Sunday. He was 59. Abdel Baset al-Megrahi died at home after a long battle with cancer. His health had deteriorated quickly, his brother Abdel Hakim told Reuters on Sunday. Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew to New York from London. All 259 people aboard the airliner were killed and 11 others on the ground in the town of Lockerbie died from falling wreckage. Almost 190 of those killed were Americans. Britain freed him in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from advanced terminal prostate cancer and thought to have months to live. His release angered many relatives of the victims, 189 of whom were American, and the Obama administration criticised the decision. A number of U.S. politicians have pressed for his extradition to the United States, something Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said it would not do. Megrahi, who served as an intelligence agent during the rule of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, denied any role in suspected human rights abuses in his home country before Gaddafi's fall and death in a popular uprising last year. In April, Al-Megrahi's condition worsened and he was taken to a private hospital to receive a transfusion of eleven litres of blood, but subsequently felt strong enough to return home. Please check back for details.