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Lockerbie bomber sent home to Libya to die
Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:57pm EDT
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By Ian Mackenzie and Ali Shuaib
EDINBURGH/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing arrived home on Thursday after Scottish authorities released him on compassionate grounds because he is dying of cancer.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, believed to have less than three months to live, was released on the order of Scotland's justice minister despite strong opposition from the United States, which had campaigned to keep him in prison.
"He is a dying man, he is terminally ill," Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill told reporters in explanation. "My decision is that he returns home to die."
Hundreds of young Libyans gathered at the airport in Tripoli to welcome him, and cheered and waved national flags as his car sped out of the airport -- even though victims' relatives said they had understood there would be no hero's welcome.
Pan Am flight 103 was carrying 189 Americans when it left London for New York on December 21, 1988. In all, 259 people on board and 11 on the ground were killed when a bomb tore apart the aircraft and wreckage fell on the town of Lockerbie.
In a statement issued by his lawyer after his departure, Megrahi said he was innocent of the bombing, but also thanked the people of Scotland for setting him free.
"To those victims' relatives who can bear to hear me say this: They continue to have my sincere sympathy for the unimaginable loss that they have suffered," he said. "Those who bear me ill will, I do not return that to you.
"This horrible ordeal is not ended by my return to Libya. It may never end for me until I die. Perhaps the only liberation for me will be death."
U.S. REGRETS
The United States regretted his release.
"As we have expressed repeatedly to officials of the government of the United Kingdom and to Scottish authorities, we continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland," the White House said in a statement.
Megrahi, 57, is the only person convicted of the bombing. He lost an appeal in 2002, though a review board ruled in 2007 that there might have been a miscarriage of justice..
A second appeal was withdrawn this week, opening the way for his release on compassionate grounds.
Relatives of many of the American victims thought Megrahi should have served his full life sentence in prison after being convicted of Britain's deadliest terrorist attack.
Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am 103, a group that represents the families of U.S. victims, said he understood the Libyan government had promised that Megrahi would not "go back to a hero's welcome." Continued...
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