EDINBURGH/TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – A former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing arrived home yesterday 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 Dec. 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.
