The longer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi lives, the more disgusting are the scenarios involving his cancer-ridden existence.

He is the convicted bomber whose activities led to the deaths of 259 people in Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Eleven innocent people on the ground also were killed.

Scotland freed this despicable soul last month, on a “compassion” release, so the terminally ill criminal could return home to die in Libya. There is every evidence that the head man in his country, Moammar Gadhafi, played some role in the Pan Am 103 tragedy and the dictator also has been treated far too decently, criminal that he is.

There are numerous theories about why the bomb plotter was released, and some of them are not flattering to Scotland or Great Britain.

It was sickening to see al-Megrahi return to Libya and be greeted by a cheering crowd as some kind of hero. Then he appeared before 150 visiting African parliamentarians. He didn’t speak, and his mouth and nose were covered with a surgical mask. The MPs were from the South Africa-based Pan African Parliament, the largely symbolic body of the African Union. Some of them, too, stood and applauded the bomber. Why was this appearance arranged and why further extension of a pity party?

Is al-Megrahi really as near death as he and his minions contend or is he thumbing his nose under that protective mask at the way he and his supporters have carried off a grisly scam?

Enough of the sympathy for Abdel Baset al-Megrahi. He is a multi-murderer who never took into account that his Lockerbie victims deserved far more “compassion” than he ever has.