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Lockerbie bomber release stirs diplomatic row
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-22 09:24

It was an unusually low-key approach for a country that used to snap up any opportunity to snub the West and could easily bring out hundreds of thousands to cheer if it chose to. It suggested that Libya is wary of hurting its ties with the US and Europe and had listened to Obama's warning not to give al-Megrahi a hero's welcome.

Lockerbie bomber release stirs diplomatic row

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi walks up the stairs to a waiting jet at Glasgow airport August 20, 2009. The Scottish government decided on Thursday to free Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi from prison on compassionate grounds as he is suffering from advanced prostate cancer and he will return home to Libya. [Agencies]
Lockerbie bomber release stirs diplomatic row

"It seemed as some form of last-minute compromise between those who felt it their patriotic duty to welcome him and those in the Libyan hierarchy who wanted to heed the demands of the US that it should be low-key," said Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya.

"There was no Libyan dignitary to receive him, and no formal reception. This is compulsory in Arab hospitality, so the absence of a welcoming party is quite significant," he added.

Al-Megrahi is the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The explosion of a bomb hidden in the cargo hold killed all 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground in Britain's worst terrorist attack.

In an interview on Friday with the Times of London newspaper, al-Megrahi said he had not told his 86-year-old mother that he is terminally ill. The newspaper said he had requested that reporters didn't tell her of his condition.

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"This was my hope and wish - to be back with my family before I pass away ... I always believed I would come back if justice prevailed," al-Megrahi was quoted as telling the newspaper at his home in the Dimachk district of Tripoli.

Libya and Britain have acted to make al-Megrahi's release as smooth and understated as possible.

Announcing it Thursday, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said he was acutely aware of the bereaved families' pain, and stressed that he had made the decision only on narrow legal grounds. Cancer specialists have given al-Megrahi less than three months to live, and it is established legal practice to release prisoners that close to death on compassionate grounds.

There have been 30 requests for compassionate release in Scotland over the last decade, 23 of which were approved. Al-Megrahi also was released just in time to arrive home for the start of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.

MacAskill said while "those who have been bereaved cannot be expected to forget, let alone forgive ... Mr. al-Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power."

Britain, meanwhile, walked a fine line - condemning al-Megrahi's reception without criticizing the decision to free him, which was made in Edinburgh under Scotland's separate judicial system.

The BBC reported that Britain was considering canceling a planned visit to Libya by Prince Andrew, who has visited the country several times in his role as a British trade ambassador. Andrew's office said a visit for next month was in the planning stages and that Buckingham Palace was taking advice from the Foreign Office.

The Foreign Office would not confirm that the visit would be canceled.

British officials also refuted claims the release was made to improve relations and bolster commercial ties - a view held by some victims' relatives in the US.

Miliband said any suggestion that the release was spurred by commercial interests was "a slur both on myself and on the government."