General

Lockerbie bomber freed

Al Megrahi going to live out his last days with family in Libya

The man convicted for 270 deaths in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 is being set free. Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, was sentenced to life in prison by a Scottish court in 2001 for the bombing, which brought the plane down in Lockerbie, Scotland. He has been granted clemency by Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill, based on a law allowing prisoners to be set free when near death. Al-Megrahi has prostate cancer, and is expected to die within three months. The US government has pressured Scotland to deny his release, and many of the families of those killed in the bombings have condemned the minister’s decision. However, many Libyans support freeing al-Megrahi, as they claim he was a scapegoat and the plane was brought down by Palestinians. Al-Megrahi has always maintained his innocence, and appealed his case in 2007.

CBC News

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