British Foreign Secretary: Lockerbie Bomber Release is 'Upsetting'
By VOA News
21 August 2009
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says it was "deeply upsetting" and "deeply distressing" to watch the scenes of the man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing being welcomed home in Libya as a hero.
Miliband also called Abdel Baset al-Megrahi a "mass murderer."
Megrahi was jailed for life for the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people. He returned to Libya late Thursday after Scottish authorities released him on compassionate grounds.
Hundreds of young Libyans, cheering and waving national flags and Megrahi's picture, welcomed him home at a Tripoli airport.
Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill announced Megrahi's release Thursday in Edinburgh, saying the convicted bomber and former Libyan intelligence officer is near death from prostate cancer.
U.S. President Barack Obama called the Scottish decision a mistake. He told an American radio journalist the Libyan government should not welcome Megrahi back and should put him under house arrest.
Megrahi was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison. PanAm flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11 others on the ground.
His early release has angered families of the victims, many of whom were American college students returning from studies in Europe.
Megrahi has always maintained his innocence and has twice appealed his sentence.
On Tuesday, A Scottish court allowed Megrahi to drop his appeal, in a move that cleared the way for his release.
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