Bomber to be allowed home; LOCKERBIE: Megrahi freedom set to cause outrage in US.Byline: Mail Reporters LOCKERBIE bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was freed today on compassionate com·pas·sion·ate adj. 1. Feeling or showing compassion; sympathetic. See Synonyms at humane. 2. Granted to an individual because of an emergency or other unusual circumstances: grounds. Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill Kenny MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is an Scottish National Party politician, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007. announced he will be allowed to return to Libya. The decision to free the convicted bomber is likely to cause outrage in the US where secretary of state Hillary Clinton said she hoped he would stay behind bars. But the father of Midland Lockerbie bomb victim Flora Swire believes it is right to release Megrahi. Dr Jim Swire Dr Jim Swire was born in 1936 in Windsor in Berkshire. He was educated at Eton College and studied at Cambridge University. From Cambridge he was commissioned into the British army as an engineer specialising in munitions and explosives. , formerly of Bromsgrove, said: "I am somebody who does not believe he is guilty. The sooner he is back with his family the better." Megrahi could be on his way home within days - possibly before the start of Ramadan at the weekend - to spend his dying days with his family. Mr MacAskill made the announcement at 1pm at the Scottish Government's ministerial Done under the direction of a supervisor; not involving discretion or policymaking. Ministerial describes an act or a function that conforms to an instruction or a prescribed procedure. It connotes obedience. headquarters in Edinburgh. He had been considering two applications - one for Megrahi to be moved from Greenock prison to Libya under a prisoner transfer agreement, and a separate application for him to be released early on compassionate grounds. The latter course will see him return home a free man. The early notice of his announcement was said to be in line with a pledge by Mr MacAskill to inform families on both sides of the Atlantic of the timing of the announcement. In the build-up to his decision, Mr MacAskill came under intense US pressure to keep Megrahi behind bars. Yesterday a cancer specialist called for an "urgent" decision on the future of the man convicted of killing 270 people when a Pan Am aircraft was brought down over Lockerbie. Professor Karol Sikora said the Libyan had an "aggressive" form of prostate cancer prostate cancer, cancer originating in the prostate gland. Prostate cancer is the leading malignancy in men in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death in men. which was no longer responding to treatment. "We believe he has only a very short period of time to live," said Prof Sikora, who assessed Megrahi last month. But Mrs Clinton said it was "absolutely wrong" to release Megrahi, and American relatives have been fiercely critical of the reported plans. Controversy: Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, in prison in Scotland. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion