Lockerbie Bomber Lawyer Denies Death Story

The British lawyer for Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi says his client is alive, contradicting a Sky News report that said he was dead.

The denial came after Britain's Sky News broadcast unconfirmed reports Wednesday that al-Megrahi died.

"It's absolutely untrue," lawyer Tony Kelly told the Reuters news agency. "He's definitely not dead."

"I'm not saying anything about his health condition other than the fact he is alive and breathing," Kelly said.

Kelly criticized the network and demanded an apology. Kelly, however, refused to say exactly when he had last spoken to al-Megrahi or how he knew.

In its original report, Sky's political editor Adam Boulton said: "Official sources in Westminster are seeking to confirm reports that the Lockerbie bomber may have died," referring to the British government.

The quote has since been removed from Sky's story.

The British Foreign Office could not confirm Sky's report and the Scottish government said it was checking the report, CBS News reports.

Scottish authorities , a Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing in which 270 people were killed, in August.

The decision to free Megrahi, terminally ill with prostate cancer, and let him be flown home to Libya and when Pan Am flight 103 exploded.