Lockerbie bomber sent home to
Reuters
Thu Aug 20, 2009 4:36pm EDT
By Ian Mackenzie and Daniel Fineren
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - A former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people flew home on Thursday after Scottish authorities released him on compassionate grounds because he is dying of cancer.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, believed to have less than three months to live, was released on the order of
Pan Am flight 103 was carrying 189 Americans when it left
"He is a dying man, he is terminally ill," Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill told reporters in explanation. "My decision is that he returns home to die."
Megrahi, wearing a white tracksuit and baseball cap and clutching a white scarf to his face, walked uneasily up the steps to a Libyan aircraft at
In a statement issued by his lawyer after his departure, Megrahi said that he was innocent and had been wrongly jailed, but also thanked the people of
"To those victims' relatives who can bear to hear me say this: they continue to have my sincere sympathy for the unimaginable loss that they have suffered," he said. "Those who bear me ill will, I do not return that to you.
"This horrible ordeal is not ended by my return to
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