Washington, August 21: The United States has reacted sharply to the release of Abdel Basset Mohamed al-Megrahi who was sentenced to life by the Scottish government for his part in the bombing of a plane in 1988 killing 270 people, including many Americans.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a statement on Thursday said: “The United States is deeply disappointed by the decision of the Scottish Executive to release Abdel Basset Mohamed al-Megrahi who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which took the lives of 270 persons, including 189 Americans.”
“We have continued to communicate our long-standing position to UK government officials and Scottish authorities that Megrahi should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland,” she said.
“Today, we remember those whose lives were lost on December 21, 1988 and we extend our deepest sympathies to the families who live each day with the loss of their loved ones due to this heinous crime,” she said.
Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, has served eight years of a life sentence for killing 270 people on Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988.
The Scottish authorities released Megrahi on compassionate grounds and allowed to go home to die with his family.
Megrahi, 57, who boarded a flight from Glasgow has reached Libyan capital Tripoli, TV reports said.
Earlier in a statement Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill said: “Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion be available.
“Our beliefs dictate that justice be served, but mercy be shown.”
“Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs that we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people. No matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated.
“For these reasons – and these reasons alone – it is my decision that Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the Lockerbie bombing, now terminally ill with prostate cancer, be released on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya to die.”
–Agencies–