Thursday, December 23, 2010
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (dark suit) arriving in Libya (AP Photo-Abdel Magid Al Fergany)
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, was not released from prison in Scotland and returned home to Libya because he was near death, contend four U.S. senators. Rather, al-Megrahi was freed in large part because of a lucrative oil deal that British Petroleum (BP) was negotiating at the time with the Libyan government, according to the senators.
The Libyan terrorist was serving a life sentence at the HMP Greenrock prison in Scotland until August 20, 2009, when he was released on compassionate grounds. Scottish officials explained their decision by saying al-Megrahi had only three months left to live as a result of his cancer.
It has now been 16 months since his release, and al-Megrahi is still alive, “reportedly living in a luxury villa,” says U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey).
Menendez, along with Democratic Senators Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, argue in a new report that the three-month prognosis given to al-Megrahi by Scottish doctors was inaccurate and unsupported by medical science.
The release of al-Megrahi violated a 1998 agreement between the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom that was supposed to guarantee that anyone convicted of the Lockerbie bombing would serve out his sentence in the U.K.
The real reason for the early release was economics. The United Kingdom wanted BP to secure a $900 million oil exploration agreement from Libya. The U.K. also sought “other profitable trade deals and investments” with the government of Muammar al-Gaddafi.
The December 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 claimed 270 lives, including 189 Americans.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Menendez Report: Lockerbie Bomber’s Release from Prison Not Medically Justified, Was Influenced by Threat of Commercial Warfare (Senator Robert Menendez)
Justice Undone (Senators Robert Menendez, Frank Lautenberg, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand) (pdf)
Comments