Lockerbie Bomber Released

Despite widespread opposition, the Lockerbie bomber has this afternoon left Scotland on board a plane bound for Libya.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, was freed from prison on compassionate grounds after being jailed in 2001 for the atrocity which claimed 270 lives in 1988.

The decision to release Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, was made by the Scottish Government.

The White House said it "deeply regretted" the decision and some of the US victims' families reacted angrily.

A police convoy left Greenock Prison, where Megrahi was serving his sentence, more than an hour after the announcement of his release was made.

The dying man was serving a life sentence of at least 27 years following his conviction for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland.

Earlier this week, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton further reiterated her opposition to the mooted release of the bomber.

She said it would be "absolutely wrong" for the Scottish Government to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi or transfer him to jail in his homeland of Libya.

However, Megrahi, dropped his second appeal against conviction on Tuesday and thereby removed the last legal hurdle to his release.

Urging the bomber be kept in jail, Mrs Clinton, speaking about the 189 Americans who were among the 270 people killed in the airliner bombing, said: "I knew a lot of these families. I talked with them about what a horror they experienced.

''We think it is very much against the wishes of the family members'.

"I just think it is absolutely wrong to release someone who has been imprisoned based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime."

Earlier this week, a letter from seven US senators including Edward Kennedy and John Kerry also urged Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to keep Megrahi behind bars.

However, Mr MacAskill said today at a Press conference: "Our justice system demands that judgement be imposed, but compassion be available.

"For these reasons and these reasons alone, it is my decision that Mr 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 be allowed to return to Libya to die."

See: Lockerbie Bomber Drops Second Appeal

(BMcC/KMcA)