Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi has arrived in Libya to a hero's welcome after he was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.
He arrived Thursday evening at a military airport on the outskirts of Tripoli, where thousands of Libyan youths greeted him along with a military band. Dressed in a dark suit and tie, al-Megrahi left the airport with the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in a convoy of all-white vehicles.
Al-Megrahi's return was a landmark event in Libya, where many people see him as an innocent victim scapegoated by the West.
Al-Megrahi has maintained his innocence and was allowed to appeal his conviction in 2007 following a Scottish judicial panel ruling that he may have suffered a "miscarriage of justice" in his 2001 trial.
Al-Megrahi's lawyers argued that British and American officials ignored witness statements and interfered with evidence suggesting the bombing was an Iranian-financed plot carried out by Palestinians.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/08/20/lockerbie-megrahi-scotland-bomber846.html
The Maltese Double Cross (1994) [Pan Am 103 Bombing Cover-up by the CIA]
Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
