"Terminally Ill" Pan Am 103 Bomber Still Living in Libya

http://gothamist.com/2010/07/06/pan_am_lockerbie_bomber_still_livin.php

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi at Tripoli Medical Center. (AP)Remember how the Scottish government justified the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi on the "compassionate" grounds that he had terminal prostate cancer and would be dead in few months? He's still kicking in Libya, and is reportedly on the mend! "There was always a chance he could live for ten years, 20 years... But it's very unusual," cancer specialist Professor Sikora told London's Sunday Times.

Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. 243 people aboard the plane—189 of them Americans, many from NY and NJ—were killed, while 11 people on the ground died when the NY-bound jet exploded. He received a "hero's welcome" when he returned home to Libya last year, and the Sunday Times later reported that Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government agreed to release him "after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards." Stay classy, BP!

When al-Megrahi was release last year, upstate NY resident Paul Halsch, whose 31-year-old wife was killed on the flight, remarked, "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."

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By John Del Signore in News on July 6, 2010 10:39 AM