In another sign of the upside down world that we live in, a convicted mass murderer was released from prison and flown home to a hero’s welcome. CNN reported that Libyan Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, convicted for the mass murder of 259 innocent passengers onboard Pan Am Flight 103 when he planted a bomb that blew the aircraft apart over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1998, walked off a plane in his native country to a cheering crowd that waved flags and honked horns. Another 11 people on the ground died when debris crashed onto them. Among the dead passengers on that flight were 259 American citizens.
Understandably the US Government was not happy, and neither were the families of those Americans who died in that flight. FBI Director Robert Mueller summed it up this way: “In a case of mass murder over Lockerbie, Mr. Megrahi served less than 14 days per victim.”
57-year old al Megrahi was released by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds – he is in terminal stage of prostate cancer with 3 months left to live. British Prime Minister Gordan Brown reportedly wrote a letter to Libayan leader Moammar Gadhafi not to give al Megrahi a celebratory welcome, but judging from the hero’s welcome he received on arrival in Libya, this is largely ignored.
Unrepentant as ever, al Megrahi issued a statement after his return to Libya saying: “The remaining days of my life will have to be spent under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction.”
Bert Ammerman, whose brother died in the bombing, called al Megrahi’s release “ludicrous” and offered his own opinion on this release: “Big business in the United States, Great Britain want the oil in Libya, and that’s what’s driving this whole wagon.”
Think about it. Why did the Scottish authorities decide to release this convicted mass murderer? Was it solely on compassionate ground? Is there any truth that big business have a role in this release? But more perplexing, how come a convicted mass murderer can receive such a public hero’s welcome back home? Was he innocent, wrongly convicted, as he claimed? What an upside down world this is.
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