Editorial: A killer is set free
The decision of a Scottish court to free the only man ever convicted of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing is a final insult to the victims' families.
The decision of a Scottish court to free the only man ever convicted of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing is a final insult to the victims' families.
The convicted terrorist, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, received a hero's welcome upon returning to his native Libya. It was an image that many grieving people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey should not have had to see.
Megrahi, 57, was convicted of the worst terrorist act against Americans prior to 9/11. The former Libyan intelligence officer was found guilty of bombing the airliner on Dec. 21, 1988, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.
Many of the victims were U.S. college students returning home for the holidays after studying abroad. Among the dead were 38 New Jerseyans and 14 Pennsylvanians.
Scottish authorities said they released Megrahi from prison because he is suffering from terminal cancer. They said he should be set free as a matter of compassion.
He showed none to his victims, and served only eight years of a 27-year sentence. Freeing him is a miscarriage of justice.
There is strong sentiment among some in the United Kingdom that Megrahi, who still maintains his innocence, was wrongfully convicted. Some believe he was made a scapegoat by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to appease the United States and other Western nations. A codefendant was acquitted in the 2001 trial.
But the decision to release Megrahi from jail was not based on new evidence. Under those circumstances, confining him to a prison hospital would have been compassion enough.
The Libyan government eagerly sought Megrahi's release. Victims' families suspect this decision had more to do with the desire of Western energy companies, including Great Britain's BP P.L.C., to tap Libya's vast reserves of oil and gas.
We may never know the whole truth. And with Megrahi's release, the likelihood of ever bringing others to justice for the Pan Am bombing also appears dimmer.
