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— EDINBURGH, Scotland - Scotland's government freed the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds Thursday, allowing him to die at home in Libya despite American protests that mercy should not be shown to the man responsible for the deaths of 270 people.
The White House said it "deeply regrets" Scotland's move minutes after the decision was announced.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's condition had deteriorated from prostate cancer. Al-Megrahi had only served some eight years of a life sentence, but MacAskill said he was bound by Scottish values to release him.
"Our belief dictates that justice be served but mercy be shown," MacAskill said, ruling that al-Megrahi "be released on compassionate grounds and be allowed to return to Libya to die."
"Some hurts can never heal, some scars can never fade," MacAskill said. "Those who have been bereaved cannot be expected to forget, let alone forgive ... However, Mr. al-Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power."
Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of taking part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988. He was sentenced to life in prison.
The airliner — which was carrying mostly American passengers to New York — blew up as it flew over Scotland. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground died when the aircraft crashed into the town of Lockerbie.
The former Libyan intelligence officer was sentenced to serve a minimum of 27 years in a Scottish prison for Britain's deadliest terrorist attack. But a 2007 review of his case found grounds for an appeal of his conviction, and many in Britain believe he is innocent.
Anger
The prospect of al-Megrahi's release angered relatives of many bombing victims and drew criticism from the U.S. government.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton phoned MacAskill before the announcement, urging him not to release al-Megrahi, and seven U.S. senators wrote a letter with a similar message.
In Washington, Obama administration officials said Scottish authorities had not formally notified them that al-Megrahi would be released. But they said the administration was working on the assumption that he would be. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate diplomacy involved and the sensitive nature of the case.
Al-Megrahi's trial and conviction led to a major shift in Libya's relationship with the West.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi engineered a rapprochement with his former critics following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He renounced terrorism, dismantled Libya's secret nuclear program, accepted his government's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the victims' families.
Western energy companies — including Britain's BP PLC — have moved into Libya in an effort to tap the country's vast oil and gas wealth.
Gadhafi has lobbied for the return of al-Megrahi, an issue which took on an added sense of urgency when he was diagnosed with cancer last year. His lawyers say his condition is deteriorating and doctors have given him less than three months to live.
Earlier in the day, a Scottish radio station reported that a jet belonging to Gadhafi had already arrived in Glasgow to transport al-Megrahi back to Libya, according to NBC News.
The Times of London also reported that the plane was scheduled to collect al-Megrahi at Glasgow Airport if he was released following MacAskill's announcement.
The airport confirmed that a plane from Tripoli had booked a slot to land on Wednesday, but did not land. An official at Glasgow who spoke on customary condition of anonymity said that no similar slots had been booked on Thursday or Friday. Nearby Prestwick airport said it was not aware of any flights arriving Thursday from Libya.
The question of whether to release the 57-year-old al-Megrahi has divided Lockerbie families, with many in Britain in favor of setting him free, and many in the U.S. adamantly opposed.
British Rev. John Mosey, whose daughter Helga, 19, died in the attack, said Wednesday he would be glad to see al-Megrahi return home.
"It is right he should go home to die in dignity with his family. I believe it is our Christian duty to show mercy," he said.
But American families have largely been hostile to the idea.
"I'm totally against it. He murdered 270 people," said Paul Halsch of Perinton, New York, who lost his 31-year-old wife in the attack. "This might sound crude or blunt, but I want him returned from Scotland the same way my wife Lorraine was ... and that would be in a box."
Peter Sullivan of Akron, Ohio, whose friend and college roommate Mike Doyle died at Lockerbie, said he believed Britain was putting commercial interests before the interests of the victims' relatives.
"The interest of big oil should not be the basis of a miscarriage of justice to let a murderer of 270 people be released," Sullivan said. "If he's released on compassionate grounds, who would provide comfort and compassion to the family members?"
A generation of sanctions
Libyans, meanwhile, are ready to celebrate the return of al-Megrahi, whom they see as an innocent victim of the West's campaign to turn their country into an international pariah.
"Exoneration. That's what we've been waiting for, and what (his release) would be," said Mohammed Abdel-Hameed, a 76-year-old retiree catching some shade behind a column in the square. "We all paid for Lockerbie, but al-Megrahi paid the highest price."
"It was all fabrication on fabrication," said Ramadan Misbahi, 45, as friends seated around him at an outdoor cafe nodded in agreement. "He didn't do anything."
The Lockerbie bombing sealed Libya's reputation as a terror sponsor in the eyes of the West. United Nations sanctions were imposed in 1992, augmenting others already imposed by the United States. The measures, as a whole, barred U.S. firms from doing business in Libya and barred air travel in and out of Libya.
The sanctions shaped the lives of a generation of Libyans. People had to drive to neighboring Tunisia or take a ferry to Malta to travel abroad. Quality goods were hard to come by. With little foreign investment — even from Europeans — and heavy government control of the local economy, cities like Tripoli fell into disrepair, buildings became run down, and Libyans felt cut off from the world.
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