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Families of Lockerbie victims debate pardon
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-14 09:34
LONDON: Families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing stood sharply divided Thursday over reports that the former Libyan agent jailed for life for the attack is to be freed on compassionate grounds. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, 57, who is dying of prostate cancer, could be released from a Scottish jail as early as next week after his conviction for murder in 2001, unconfirmed media reports said.
A Libyan official in Tripoli said a deal was "in the last steps", but stressed both sides had agreed to keep quiet until Megrahi is back in Libya. Megrahi was found guilty under Scottish law at a trial in the Netherlands of blowing up a Pan Am Boeing 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie as it flew from London to New York. He was sentenced 27 years in prison. The bomb killed all 259 people on board, including 189 Americans, and 11 people on the ground. Relatives of British victims said they had never been convinced of Megrahi's guilt and broadly welcomed the reports of his possible release. "I don't believe the verdict is right," Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the bombing, told BBC radio. "It would be an abominable cruelty to force this man to die in prison." 'Flying A Kite' Scottish lawyer and academic Robert Black, who helped devise the original trial format and has criticised the guilty verdict, said he thought the Scottish authorities wanted to avoid Libya portraying Megrahi's punishment as a death sentence. "I think they don't want this man to die in a Scottish jail," he told Reuters. "That is an overriding consideration." Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter died in the attack, said it was crucial Megrahi's ongoing appeal in the Scottish courts was allowed to continue to find out exactly what happened. "I am not absolutely convinced of Megrahi's guilt nor of his innocence," she told the BBC. "We simply at this point do not know enough ... to be able to make that judgment." Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya, said news of Megrahi's possible release may have been leaked to gauge public opinion before a final decision is made. "Perhaps the authorities are flying a kite to see what the reaction will be," he told the BBC. "These things can change and I think the public reaction might well change the decision." However, American relatives of some of those killed said there was no doubt about Megrahi's guilt and he should be left to serve the rest of his life sentence in Scotland. "There is no question in my mind that this man is guilty," Kathleen Flynn, whose son died in the bombing, told GMTV. Bert Ammerman, whose brother Tom was killed on the flight, said the release of Megrahi would be "insane, immoral, reprehensible", adding: "He should finish out his term in Scotland, pass away and then send him home in a casket." Four years after Megrahi's conviction, Libya accepted responsibility and agreed to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to victims' families. That helped clear the way for Western states to lift sanctions and restore their ties with Libya.  Reuters |
