THE son of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has said his family will back a posthumous appeal after revealing his father's dying words were to protest his innocence.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi died on May 20 – almost three years after he was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds.

In August 2009, days before his release, Megrahi dropped his second appeal against his conviction at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.

Partly because Megrahi has died, his family could now send a new submission to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to ask them to refer the case back for a fresh appeal.

In an interview with The Herald after his release, Megrahi said he had come under no pressure to drop his appeal but simply wanted to improve his chances of returning to Libya to see his family.

However, since then, he claimed in his official biography that Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill had – through a Libyan diplomat – encouraged him to drop the appeal. Mr MacAskill has strongly denied that allegation.

Khaled al Megrahi, 27, told The Herald: "I am a believer that my father was not guilty and very soon new evidence will come out. Me and my brothers will not be silent.

"Before he died, my father's last words were he is not guilty.

"I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has supported us. We know one day the truth will come out."

Scottish ministers have said publicly they would be comfortable with a new appeal being launched by Megrahi's family.

Campaigners and relatives of victims have also called for a full public inquiry. The UK Government and Alex Salmond have so far rejected such calls. In a statement last month, a Scottish Government spokesman said: "It remains open for relatives of Mr Megrahi or the relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie atrocity to ask the SCCRC to refer the case to the Appeal Court again on a posthumous basis, which ministers would be entirely comfortable with."

Megrahi, who was 60 when he died last month, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1988 bombing of a US airliner that claimed 270 lives.

It was mainland Britain's biggest terrorist atrocity. The bombing of the plane, which was travelling from London to New York four days before Christmas, killed all 259 people on board.

Eleven residents of the Dumfries and Galloway town also died after the plane crashed down on their homes.

After protracted international pressure, Megrahi was put on trial under Scots law at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

He was found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years behind bars.

Despite claims he could not have worked alone, and the lingering suspicion by many that he was innocent, Megrahi was the only man ever convicted over the terrorist attack.

He was freed from prison after serving nearly eight years of his sentence after he dropped his appeal.

When interviewed at their former home in Newton Mearns by The Herald in December 2008, Khaled said that, as eldest son, he had to bear the burden of paternal responsibility.

"I was in primary school when my father had to leave," he said. "It was the first time I had seen my father cry. My brothers were too young to really understand what was going on.

"My mother became father and mother and she asked me to help to advise my brothers. I became like the man of the house.

"My dad always supports me. He says I have to be the good example for my other brothers.

"I don't feel angry about what has happened, just sad. I only have one wish and that is that he comes home.

"We forget how it was when he lived with us."