LOCKERBIE BOMBER FREED FROM JAIL (from BBC NEWS)

The convicted Lockerbie bomber has been flown home to Libya after being freed from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, was jailed in 2001 for the atrocity which claimed 270 lives in 1988. The decision to release Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, was made by the Scottish Government. US president Barack Obama said the decision was "a mistake" and some US victims' families reacted angrily.

Some 189 Americans were among those who died in the explosion.

Megrahi was taken to Glasgow Airport where he boarded an Afriqiyah Airways Airbus plane bound for Tripoli, wearing a white track suit and clutching his prison release papers.

The aircraft took off shortly before 1530 BST and arrived in the Libyan capital shortly after 1930 BST.

The government said it had consulted widely before Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill made his decision on applications for Megrahi's compassionate release or his transfer to a Libyan jail. He told a media conference on Thursday that he had rejected the application for a prisoner transfer. However, after taking medical advice it was expected that three months was a "reasonable estimate" of the time Megrahi had left to live. He ruled out the option of the Libyan being allowed to live in Scotland on security grounds.

And Mr MacAskill stressed that he accepted the conviction and sentence which had been handed to Megrahi. "Mr al-Megrahi did not show his victims any comfort or compassion. They were not allowed to return to the bosom of their families to see out their lives, let alone their dying days. No compassion was shown by him to them," he said. "But that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his final days."

Mr MacAskill continued: "Our justice system demands that judgement be imposed, but compassion be available. After the Scottish justice secretary made his announcement, life continued as normal in rain-soaked Lockerbie. People were surprised by the decision he made - the real question was whether they had a strong opinion about it.

When the bombing happened 21 years ago, this town was full of army personnel and the emergency services and local people who helped that night became heroes. But it happened a generation ago, and, while some American victims' families say his release is incomprehensible, people here in Lockerbie say they don't see things in black and white. Two families were wiped out here, but the immediate families of the other victims no longer stay in Lockerbie. Some say it's right Megrahi has been released because he is very ill. Does the decision bring everything to a close? People here say no.

Even though they have put the event in the past, tourists from across the world still come here. For them, Lockerbie will always be known as the place where PAN AM flight 103 came down.

Mr MacAskill had been under intense pressure from the US government to keep Megrahi behind bars, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying his release would be "absolutely wrong". "Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs the we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people - no matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated," he added.

In a statement released after his departure from HMP Greenock, Megrahi continued to protest his innocence. He said: "The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction. "I have been faced with an appalling choice: to risk dying in prison in the hope that my name is cleared posthumously or to return home still carrying the weight of the guilty verdict, which will never now be lifted. "The choice which I made is a matter of sorrow, disappointment and anger, which I fear I will never overcome."

Reacting to the decision, US president Barack Obama said: "We have been in contact with the Scottish Government, indicating that we objected to this and we thought it was a mistake." He said they had also contacted the Libyan government to ask that Megrahi not be "welcomed back" but instead placed under house arrest. "We've also obviously been in contact with the families of the Pan Am victims and indicated to them that we don't think this was appropriate," he added.

The Libyan government has played down claims Megrahi would return to Tripoli a hero. He will be required to live permanently at a given address in Libya, must agree any change of address and must not travel from Libya without consent, the Scottish Government said.

The families of American victims of the Lockerbie bombing reacted angrily to the news of his release. Kara Weipz, of Mt Laurel, New Jersey, who lost her 20-year-old brother Richard Monetti, said: "I don't understand how the Scots can show compassion. It is an utter insult and utterly disgusting. "It is horrible. I don't show compassion for someone who showed no remorse."

New York state resident Paul Halsch, whose 31-year-old wife was killed, said of Mr MacAskill's decision: "I'm totally against it. He murdered 270 people. "This might sound crude or blunt, but I want him returned from Scotland the same way my wife Lorraine was and that would be in a box."

However, British relatives' spokesman Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the atrocity, said he believed Megrahi had "nothing to do with" the bombing. "I don't believe for a moment that this man was involved in the way that he was found to have been involved," he said. I am ashamed to be Scottish today. Where is the justice for the victims?
"I feel despondent that the west and Scotland didn't have the guts to allow this man's second appeal to continue because I am convinced had they done so it would have overturned the verdict against him. "It's a blow to those of us who seek the truth but it is not an ending. I think it is a splitting of the ways."

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Tripoli said that until now, Libyan officials had been careful not to comment in case they jeopardised the release, wary of last minute interventions by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Officially there are unlikely to be any triumphant statements, but given the personal involvement of Mr Gaddafi it will no doubt be seen as further evidence of his growing stature on the international stage, our correspondent said. It is rumoured that he has asked to see Megrahi when he returns, and the timing is perfect - in 12 days' time Libya celebrates the 40th anniversary of the revolution that brought Muammar Gaddafi to power, he added. Our correspondent said Megrahi's release has been billed by the leader as the new dawn for Libya, and to many it will be viewed as a more palatable ending to one of the darkest chapters in the country's history.

Megrahi was convicted of murder in January 2001 at a trial held under Scottish law in the Netherlands. A first appeal against that verdict was rejected the following year. However, in 2007 the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission granted him a second appeal. It subsequently emerged he was suffering from terminal cancer but a bid to have him granted bail was refused. His second appeal got under way this year but shortly afterwards applications were made for both his transfer to a Libyan jail and release on compassionate grounds.

Earlier this week the High Court in Edinburgh allowed Megrahi's application to drop his second appeal.



I don't say this often, but I'm disappointed in my country. I think this is one of the worst decisions the SNP (and that idiot Alex Salmond) have made since they were elected. It's hardly surprising though, given the SNP's disregard for Scotland's relationship with other countries (this is going to do nothing for our relationship with the US). I have two major problems with this... 1) They showed compassion and released someone whom they had convicted of murdering 270 people, and more importantly 2) they never allowed his appeal to go ahead, the one chance for the families to find out what REALLY happened.

I'm not convinced this guy was guilty. There's too many unanswered questions... why was the break into the baggage area of Heathrow airport not properly investigated? Why were suggestions of Iranian involvement not properly investigated? (It was initially thought to be revenge for the shooting down of an Iranian passenger airliner by an American warship in 1988) How was this guy convicted based on evidence from one Maltese shopkeeper who picked him out of a line up? Why was this Maltese shopkeeper paid millions of pounds for his evidence by the Americans? Why was the plane only 2/3rds full, right before Christmas? Why did a notice go up at the American embassy in Moscow warning diplomats not to travel on Pan Am flights? And why were senior South African figures being "hauled off" the plane before its final flight? Why did why then prime minister Margaret Thatcher overrule her transport secretary, and stop a public inquiry into the attack?

Personally I think it stinks of a bigger conspiracy and there's a good chance Megrahi was used as a scapegoat. But thanks to the Scottish government, we'll probably never know the answers.

I don't agree with this either. If he was guilty or not, it seems strange that there were no other options they considered before going forward with this.

Shouldn't he have gotten the death penalty?! That's what I would of given him if I were the judge... Or, do you guys not have the death penalty??

We (thankfully) don't have the death penalty. And he certainly should NOT have gotten the death penalty, especially considering the doubt over his conviction. One of the biggest problems with the death penalty is you can't take back the punishment if the person is later found to be innocent. And he may well be innocent.

Oh, I didn't read the whole article.. I didn't know there was doubt he was innocent.

I only agree with the death penalty if they're 100% sure the person did it -- especially if they killed 270 people.

I'm not convinced he was guilty either, the government have new evidence which they refused to even give to the defense before the appeal was dropped. I really think they should of gone through the appeal process, I just hope that in the future the case is re-opened. Before the flight left the baggage area was broken in to, the police didn't even investigate this, they didn't even mention it until 12 years after the bombing!

Guilty or not, the reception he got on his return home was disgusting and totally insensitive.

Agreed. However, it is possible that to the Libyans he is viewed as an innocent man, who was wrongly imprisoned. So the reception may have been at joy that justice (in their eyes) had been done, and not intended as disrespect to those who died.

I imagine that if a British person was wrongly imprisoned in say the US, and released years later, there would likely be a similar reception for their homecoming.

I agree it was still insensitive, but I'm not sure it was a reception intended to support terrorism. I do wish they hadn't waved Scottish flags though. The Scottish people did not agree with this decision. It was a decision made by two men alone, and quite possibly so as to cover up what really happened that night.

Websites like this make me very sad - http://www.boycottscotland.com/.

And angry, not just at the Americans who are punishing an entire country for a decision made by two men (there's A LOT of things which the American government have done which Brits don't agree with, but we'd never be as childish as to say we'd never go there, so as to punish the country's own people), but also angry at MacAskill and Salmond for damaging our country's international reputation like this.

About three years ago now a British man was released from Death row in American after 21 years and in his area people gave him the welcome he deserved. The people who are ignorant enough to support boycottscotland.com will soon become bored and start victimising another group of people.

I don't really know how to comment on this because frankly, I'm not that educated on the subject.

Is his trial in question? Does he still maintain his innocence? Has there been any hard proof to determine that he bombed that plane?

Yes, Yes, No

Yes. He was convicted mostly on the basis of one witness (something to do with buying fabric, which was later connected to the bombing), a witness who was also paid a huge sum of money by the Americans. :P

And he has always maintained his innocence. He says he only dropped his appeal because he didn't want to spend his last days of his life fighting. It is of course possible that he dropped his appeal because he had been told he may be released if he did so (because it's likely the government don't want the truth to come out).

I THINK THE AMERICAN REACTION TO THE DECISION IS AN OVERREACTION, YO. LIKE, WHETHER OR NOT IT WAS THE RIGHT DECISION, IT DOESN'T HAVE DIRE CONSEQUENCES. THE GUY IS DYING, AND HE WILL DIE IN PAIN. IT'S NOT LIKE HE'S BEING FREED INTO A LIFE OF UNDESERVED JOY WHERE HE CAN GO ROUND POTENTIALLY BOMBING PEOPLE AGAIN. AND WHERE HE DIES MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE TO THE LOST LIVES IN THE LOCKERBIE BOMBING. THE PEOPLE ARE DEAD. NOTHING CAN CHANGE THAT. AND THIS GUY HAS BEEN PUNISHED. AND NOW HE WILL DIE.