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

While Britain does have oil interests in Libya - notably a $900 million exploration deal between BP PLC and Libya's National Oil Co. - they are small compared to investments by Italy's Eni SpA.

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Although the legal story of Lockerbie is now over, some argue that the full truth about the attack may never be known. Although Libya accepted formal responsibility for the bombing, many there see al-Megrahi as an innocent victim scapegoated by the West.

The Libyan's lawyers have argued the attack was the result of an Iranian-financed Palestinian plot, and a 2007 Scottish judicial review of al-Megrahi's case found grounds for an appeal of his conviction.

Some Lockerbie victims' relatives in Britain were disappointed when al-Megrahi dropped his appeal against his conviction, which he had to do in order to be freed. They had hoped new details about the bombing would come out at a future trial.

Even as he left prison, al-Megrahi protested his innocence.

"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," he said in a statement.

Scottish prosecutors formally dropped their appeal against the jail term imposed on the Lockerbie bomber. They had called the 27-year sentence too lenient and sought to have it extended.

Their appeal is now irrelevant. Al-Megrahi is free after serving just eight years.

Al-Megrahi's trial at a special Scottish court set up in The Netherlands, which came after years of diplomatic maneuvering, was a step toward normalizing relations between the West and Libya, which spent years under UN and US sanctions because of the Lockerbie bombing.

Over the next few years, Gadhafi 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 - then moved into Libya in an effort to tap the country's vast oil and gas wealth.

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