[This is the headline over The Herald's main report by chief reporter Lucy Adams on yesterday's release of Abdelbaset Megrahi. It reads in part:]
The Libyan man convicted of Britain's worst terrorist act arrived home to a hero's welcome as an international political storm erupted around the decision to release him from a Scottish prison.
Thousands of compatriots - some waving Scottish flags - greeted Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi last night, hours after President Barack Obama, who called his release a "mistake", pleaded with Libya to avoid making his return a victory celebration.
Megrahi's freedom came after Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill announced he was allowing the terminally-ill cancer patient to return home to die on compassionate grounds.
Frail and dressed in a white tracksuit and cap, 57-year-old Megrahi - who was sentenced to 27 years for the murders of 270 people in 2001 - walked unaided up the steps of a chartered Libyan jet at Glasgow airport, which left at 3.26pm for north Africa.
In a statement released as he made his journey to freedom, the former Libyan agent said: "This horrible ordeal is not ended by my return to Libya. It may never end for me until I die. Perhaps the only liberation for me will be death. And I say in the clearest possible terms, which I hope every person in every land will hear: all of this I have had to endure for something that I did not do."
Making one of the biggest decisions by a Scottish minister since devolution, Mr MacAskill had earlier said the dying Megrahi "now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power".
"It is one that no court, in any jurisdiction, in any land, could revoke or overrule. It is terminal, final and irrevocable. He is going to die," he told the world's media. (...)
Pictures from Tripoli showed hundreds of people cheering Megrahi as he left the plane. A crowd also gathered in the city's Green Square to apparently celebrate his release.
However, the Tripoli Post reported how people were shocked at his poor state of health.
The newspaper said: "Many are blaming the Scottish authorities for not taking care of Megrahi's health while in prison and speculate that he was left, on purpose, to die of his cancer."
Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter died on the Pan Am jet that exploded above Lockerbie in 1988, condemned the celebrations. "I think a hero's welcome is entirely inappropriate in the circumstances," she said. (...)
Details of Megrahi's personal plea for compassion were disclosed yesterday. "I am terminally ill. There is no prospect of my recovery," he told Mr MacAskill in a letter from jail. His plea was disclosed as private medical notes were also made public for the first time.
Last night, Sir Richard Dalton, who was British ambassador to Libya between 1999 and 2002, called the decision of Mr MacAskill to release the terminally-ill Megrahi "difficult" but "right".
He said: "Appalling though the atrocity was that led to the deaths of 270 people, there are not good reasons why anybody convicted of that crime should be excepted from normal rules which apply for considering release on compassionate grounds."
Jim Swire, who lost his 23-year-old daughter, Flora, in the atrocity and has been vocal in his belief in Megrahi's innocence, praised the decision.
He told the BBC: "I don't believe for a moment that this man was involved in the way that he was found to have been involved."
[Further articles in the same newspaper on various aspects of Megrahi's release, its implications and reactions to it are to be found here and here and here and here. An editorial can be read here.
The Scotsman's coverage of Megrahi's release can be read here. An opinion piece by Tam Dalyell in the same newspaper can be read here and a leader entitled "History will record Megrahi's release as the right decision" here.]
No comments:
Post a Comment