Al Megrahi finally defused

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, has finally passed away, giving DeathList 2012 its third success. Expectations of Al Megrahi's demise had been high since he was freed from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds in 2009 on the basis he was expected to succumb to prostate cancer within weeks or months of release. However, he took the opportunity to take on Ronnie Biggs in a competition to see who could survive the longest after being released by the UK authorities on the basis he was about to die. Megrahi ultimately managed a heroic 2 years and 9 months, even out-surviving Colonel Gaddafi, although Biggs was always going to be a tough competitor. Whether Megrahi was, in fact, actually the Lockerbie bomber continues to be the subject of much debate, but at least his spot on DeathList, this year selected number 3, was never in dispute.