Lockerbie Bomber's Homecoming 'Upsetting,' U.K. Says
Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The scenes of jubilation that greeted convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi as he returned to his native Libya were condemned by the British and U.S. governments today.
"Obviously, the sight of a mass murderer getting a hero's welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing, above all for the 270 families who grieve every day for the loss of their loved ones 21 years ago," U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a British Broadcasting Corp. radio interview.
The U.S. government told Libya that the welcome reception "sends the wrong message and is deeply offensive" to the families of the victims, said Bill Burton, White House deputy press secretary. "It is disturbing to see images suggesting that Megrahi was accorded a hero's welcome instead of being treated as a convicted murderer," he said in a statement.
Al-Megrahi, who is dying of prostate cancer, was released from prison on compassionate grounds yesterday by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. The Libyan was convicted in 2001 for the 1988 killing of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Doctors have estimated that he has less than three months to live.
Waving and Cheering
Hundreds of young Libyans at the airport in Tripoli cheered and some waved Scottish flags as al-Megrahi, 57, stepped off the plane. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday wrote to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi asking that al-Megrahi's return be handled "sensitively," Brown's office in London said today.
Britain and Libya restored diplomatic relations in 1999 after Tripoli accepted general responsibility for the fatal shooting of a British policewoman outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984. U.K. authorities said the shot came from the embassy. British police haven't arrested anyone over the killing.
In 2003, Libya agreed to abandon its nuclear and chemical weapons programs. Full diplomatic relations with the U.S., severed in the early 1980s, were restored in 2006 after the Bush administration removed the North African country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
"Libya has come back into the international community," Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, who is managing the government while Brown is on vacation, told Sky News today. "They have to remember all the things that go with that, and one of those things is respect for the people who lost their lives in the Lockerbie disaster."
'Slur' on Government
Miliband denied suggestions the British government had wanted al-Megrahi freed to bolster diplomatic and commercial ties with Libya, Africa's third-largest oil producer.
"That is a slur both on myself and the government," Miliband said. "We have been scrupulous in saying this decision should be made by the Scottish authorities. It is wrong to say the British government has somehow put pressure on the Scottish authorities or anyone else."
Scotland has a judicial system that is independent of the rest of the U.K.
BP Plc, the biggest U.K.-based oil company, resumed work in Libya in 2007 and said last year it planned to invest more than $2 billion on initial exploration for natural gas. Brown and Qaddafi met at a Group of Eight summit in Italy in July.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged Scotland to keep al-Megrahi in prison, as did seven U.S. senators who wrote to MacAskill. The U.S. won't try to block a planned visit by Qaddafi to the United Nations next month, a State Department official said yesterday.
Cameron Comments
In Britain, opposition Conservative leader David Cameron said yesterday the decision was wrong and "the product of some pretty nonsensical thinking." He wrote to Brown today, asking the prime minister to make clear his views on the decision.
Robert Brown, the Liberal Democrats' justice spokesman in the Scottish Parliament, today said the welcome given al-Megrahi in Libya was "beyond inappropriate."
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said that while he strongly supported the decision to release al-Megrahi, the celebrations that greeted his homecoming were distasteful.
"I don't think the reception for Mr. al-Megrahi was appropriate in Libya," Salmond told BBC Radio. "I don't think that was wise, and I don't think that was the right thing to do."
He denied MacAskill's decision had tarnished the reputation of Scotland or damaged relations with President Barack Obama.
"We have to do what we think is right and proper, and that's what the justice secretary did," Salmond said. "Our relationship with America is a strong and enduring one. It doesn't depend on always reaching agreement." He said the U.K. government had offered "no recommendation" on the decision.
Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, has maintained his innocence in the bombing of the Boeing 747 flying to New York from London on Dec. 21, 1988. The only person convicted over the atrocity, he was jailed to serve a minimum of 27 years. He lost his first appeal against conviction and dropped a second appeal days before his release.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net .
Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The scenes of jubilation that greeted convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi as he returned to his native Libya were condemned by the British and U.S. governments today.
"Obviously, the sight of a mass murderer getting a hero's welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing, above all for the 270 families who grieve every day for the loss of their loved ones 21 years ago," U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a British Broadcasting Corp. radio interview.
The U.S. government told Libya that the welcome reception "sends the wrong message and is deeply offensive" to the families of the victims, said Bill Burton, White House deputy press secretary. "It is disturbing to see images suggesting that Megrahi was accorded a hero's welcome instead of being treated as a convicted murderer," he said in a statement.
Al-Megrahi, who is dying of prostate cancer, was released from prison on compassionate grounds yesterday by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. The Libyan was convicted in 2001 for the 1988 killing of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Doctors have estimated that he has less than three months to live.
Waving and Cheering
Hundreds of young Libyans at the airport in Tripoli cheered and some waved Scottish flags as al-Megrahi, 57, stepped off the plane. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday wrote to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi asking that al-Megrahi's return be handled "sensitively," Brown's office in London said today.
Britain and Libya restored diplomatic relations in 1999 after Tripoli accepted general responsibility for the fatal shooting of a British policewoman outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984. U.K. authorities said the shot came from the embassy. British police haven't arrested anyone over the killing.
In 2003, Libya agreed to abandon its nuclear and chemical weapons programs. Full diplomatic relations with the U.S., severed in the early 1980s, were restored in 2006 after the Bush administration removed the North African country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
"Libya has come back into the international community," Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, who is managing the government while Brown is on vacation, told Sky News today. "They have to remember all the things that go with that, and one of those things is respect for the people who lost their lives in the Lockerbie disaster."
'Slur' on Government
Miliband denied suggestions the British government had wanted al-Megrahi freed to bolster diplomatic and commercial ties with Libya, Africa's third-largest oil producer.
"That is a slur both on myself and the government," Miliband said. "We have been scrupulous in saying this decision should be made by the Scottish authorities. It is wrong to say the British government has somehow put pressure on the Scottish authorities or anyone else."
Scotland has a judicial system that is independent of the rest of the U.K.
BP Plc, the biggest U.K.-based oil company, resumed work in Libya in 2007 and said last year it planned to invest more than $2 billion on initial exploration for natural gas. Brown and Qaddafi met at a Group of Eight summit in Italy in July.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged Scotland to keep al-Megrahi in prison, as did seven U.S. senators who wrote to MacAskill. The U.S. won't try to block a planned visit by Qaddafi to the United Nations next month, a State Department official said yesterday.
Cameron Comments
In Britain, opposition Conservative leader David Cameron said yesterday the decision was wrong and "the product of some pretty nonsensical thinking." He wrote to Brown today, asking the prime minister to make clear his views on the decision.
Robert Brown, the Liberal Democrats' justice spokesman in the Scottish Parliament, today said the welcome given al-Megrahi in Libya was "beyond inappropriate."
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said that while he strongly supported the decision to release al-Megrahi, the celebrations that greeted his homecoming were distasteful.
"I don't think the reception for Mr. al-Megrahi was appropriate in Libya," Salmond told BBC Radio. "I don't think that was wise, and I don't think that was the right thing to do."
He denied MacAskill's decision had tarnished the reputation of Scotland or damaged relations with President Barack Obama.
"We have to do what we think is right and proper, and that's what the justice secretary did," Salmond said. "Our relationship with America is a strong and enduring one. It doesn't depend on always reaching agreement." He said the U.K. government had offered "no recommendation" on the decision.
Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, has maintained his innocence in the bombing of the Boeing 747 flying to New York from London on Dec. 21, 1988. The only person convicted over the atrocity, he was jailed to serve a minimum of 27 years. He lost his first appeal against conviction and dropped a second appeal days before his release.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net .
