The Lockerbie Bomber?
 

Lockerbie bomber boards plane home
The Lockerbie bomber has left Scotland on board a plane bound for Libya after being freed from 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 released from Greenock Prison


police convoy left Greenock Prison, where Megrahi was serving his sentence, more than an hour after the announcement of his release was made.
He was taken to Glasgow Airport to board the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus plane bound for Tripoli, which took off shortly before 1530 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.




Fiona Trott
BBC News correspondent, in Lockerbie

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.


"For these reasons and these reasons alone, it is my decision that Mr Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the Lockerbie bombing, now terminally ill with prostate cancer, be released on compassionate grounds and be allowed to return to Libya to die."
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 bombing claimed 270 lives

The families of American victims of the Lockerbie bombing reacted angrily to the news.
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.
Have Your Say

I am ashamed to be Scottish today. Where is the justice for the victims?

Ross MacDonald, Edinburgh
Send us your comment


"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.
Appeal dropped
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.

he has three months to live or less.

in america the people would have him die alone in a concrete cell

what happened to the compassionate conservatives?

what I think is interesting about all this is the clash between Americans and the UK.

Many of the UK (according to the media reporting) are actually in support of this, out of a kind of spirit of forgiveness whereas all the Americans (and I mean ALL of em!) are fire and brimbstone mad about this shit, they want 'justice' (of course, by which they mean vengeance)

America is outraged that the UK could have any kind of compassion, but I think it is interesting that the family of the victims of the UK are being extremely altruistic and forgiving about this incident, and even after 20 years the Americans can't let it go.. this is not to disrespect any of the families, just an observation. I see the families in the UK giving interviews saying they agree with the decision, and I see families in the US ready to kill somebody in the UK over this shit..
alas alas, where is all the love america?

We supposedly got our sense of 'law' and 'justice' from our English roots and Anglo-Saxon tradition so why the clash here?

The whole Lockerbie thing stinks to high heaven - that guy was simply a patsy. Hint - We (the UK/US) were doing dubious deals with Iran and Syria around the time of the bomb, leading to "us" withholding lots of information that would have pointed to the real culprits...

I will NEVER forgive him for causing my monthly imported issue of White Dwarf Magazine to be blown to fucking shreds.

IT WAS ON THAT FUCKING PLANE!!! (or so Games Workshop would have me believe - dun dun duuuuuun).

agreed. but I was commenting more on the social reaction to this incident rather then the schematics and logistics of the bombing and trial itself. The people's reaction, from street people to the victims, is in a surprising contrast. I don't necessarily know what I would feel in this situation, but I know that i-man would not be like the american families I hear crying for what essentially equates to vengeance. The feelings they harbor are self-destructive and frightening. Hate is an all consuming emotion, and it must be stopped and not supported. Many americans feel hateful about this situation, and regardless of the circumstances we can never legitimate hate. that is why I am touched by the UK victims who by-and-large are supporting this release, and speaking out about it in a slightly (considering the circumstance) positive regard. This whole thing is a testimony to both sides of the coin of the human spirit.

The UK is representing the side of love, empathy and forgiveness, where as the US is representing spite, hatred and anomosity..

floatingdude - Ha ha ha, "White Dwarf" sounds like a white power magazine for the vertically challenged.

Games Workshop once sponsored an album by UK metal-guh merchants Bolt Thrower....does Muammar Gadaffi listen to UK 80's crust-metal, I wonder?

that's because, everything about Bolt Thrower is Warhammer! even the name comes from it.

the cover of their first album is the just cover to the original 40k rulebook.




[/geekery]

^^^Awesome! "In Battle There Is No Law", indeed!

ahem, what does all this have to do with Lockerbie Bombing?



jesus! get back on topic people!

The big question on CNN is "why mercy?"

Why not?

Have we become so fucking inhumanly merciless that an act like this is viewed as weak or stupid?

I feel sickened to live in a world of vengeful, merciless, and incompassionate people.

thank you! my point exactly! I appreciate those victims who show forgiveness, it is a powerful feeling. If it were not for love and forgiveness, we as a species would have annihilated ourselves ages ago..

the only reason the sun rises each morning is the compassion, love and empathy of the true human spirit which overpowers the negative.

I think with regard to the US viewpoint, it's a case of the loudest people being heard.

The loudest people in cases like these tend to be pig ignorant and simply don't possess the patience, or intellect, to reconsider evidence. The don't want to hear anything and they would love this guy to hang.

Hang him and closure comes right behind, the case is wrapped up neatly.

Hollywoodtacular.

Obviously this isn't representative of all, I mean there were heroic and vocal people who lost loved ones in the twin towers but they refused to have those loved ones names be used in a roundabout quasi moral justification for the war on Iraq.

As regards Obama etc. mouthing off, this is a soft case for them - they don't want to be seen as being "soft" on terrorism. He/others can say one thing in public but they have no intention of trying to exert real tangible pressure on Scotlands legal system.

there is evidence to suggest that this guy was mearly a fall guy for the real culprits.

if he was the real bomber then i dont think he should have been released. if you knowingly blow up planes full of people then you have to live with the consequences of being caught and living the rest of your days in prison. thats if he was the real bomber indeed.

it's because americans are still "eye for an eye" vengeful I guess, and frankly, I could give a fuck whether that cocksmear died at home in peace, or in a cell, or strung up by a prison riot. he forfeit his right to a peaceful death with his mass murder.
if he was wrongly convicted, then this is a total fucking asskiss to try and make up for it.
if he was NOT wrongly convicted then fuck him.

irony:

The US soft on terrorism?

With all these drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the past 6 years in Iraq, not to mention the secret involvement in places like Columbia or Georgia etc etc I think the US IS TERRORISM!

and I can't say I am disappointed with Obama switching it all up from "yes we can.." and filling in the blank with ".. continue war war war" because he was not a peace candidate, he is a warmonger like the rest of the punk democrats.. but that is another issue. The President mouthed the kind of rhetoric I would expect from the US, its the UK that really surprised me on this one, and the reactions of UK victims has truly touched me. It is an example of forgiveness and love which I will convey to my children's children down the way.. :)

there is a constructive argument for you.

SuchFriends - A very good and interesting point about the UK side willing to forgive this guy. I think it all stems from the thing of us lot over here being more aware of the facts/shenanigans about the whole thing, and also a healthy distrust of the powers that be (who would happily have us believe that he was the sole party responsible). Looks like us lot aren't simply after a straw man on which to heap (quite understandable, under the circumstances) revenge invecitve upon...