Beirut, August 23: FBI Director Robert Mueller has condemned a decision by Scotland to release the Lockerbie bomber, describing it as a move that ‘gives comfort to terrorists’.
In a harshly-worded letter directed at Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, Mueller expressed his ‘personal’ and ‘professional’ outrage at the release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi. Copies of the letter were also sent to the families of the victims.
Out of compassion and on the grounds that al-Megrahi is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, MacAskill ordered his release and his repatriation to Libya.
In 2001, al-Megrahi, 57, a former Libyan intelligence operative, was sentenced to life in prison for being behind the bombing of a Pan American Airliner that killed all 259 on board as well as 11 on the ground in the small Scottish town of Lockerbie where debris from the disintegrating plane landed.
“I have made it a practice not to comment on the actions of other prosecutors,” wrote Mueller, who was a Justice Department lawyer at the time, leading the investigation into the 1988 bombing.
“Your decision to release Megrahi causes me to abandon that practice in this case. I do so because I am familiar with the facts, and the law … And I do so because I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of compassion,” the Associated Press reported.
The FBI chief said that the Thursday release was “as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law.”
His letter was dated Friday, and was made public on Saturday.
Mueller further said that releasing a convicted bomber “gives comfort to terrorists around the world who now believe that regardless of the quality of the investigation … the terrorist will be freed by one man’s exercise of ‘compassion’.”
Scotland’s government responded to the letter saying that Mueller “should also be aware that while many families have opposed Mr. MacAskill’s decision, many others have supported it.”
—–Agencies