Lockerbie bomber freed from jail
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.
A police convoy left Greenock Prison, where Megrahi was serving his sentence, just an hour after the announcement of his
release was made.
It was greeting by angry jeers from a small group of local residents.
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.
