London, October 18: The controversial decision to free the Lockerbie bomber was in line with the principles of India’s Mahatma Gandhi, Scotland’s First Minister said today, drawing criticism from opponents.
Alex Salmond praised his Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill for taking the decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds in August.
Megrahi has terminal cancer and is now back in Libya, his homeland.
The only person ever convicted of the crime, Megrahi was jailed for at least 27 years in 2001 over the bombing of a Pan Am flight above the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 and served eight years of a life sentence.
The bombing killed 270 people, most of them Americans.
Salmond’s comments came at a conference of his ruling Scottish National Party in Inverness, northern Scotland.
–PTI