Lockerbie Blast Culprit Freed - Assignment Example

Running head: Lockerbie Blast Culprit Freed Introduction On December 21, 1988, the Pan Am Flight 103, the plane that was flying over Lockerbie, a town in Scotland, exploded with bomb killing two hundred and Seventy people, the majority of whom were Americans. A 57-year-old Libyan Abdel Basset Ali-Megrahi who was convicted for this terrorist attack and sentenced to serve 27 years of a life sentence was released on grounds of compassion that he is dying from prostate cancer. This is after serving eight years of the life sentence.

The issue It was observed that this particular bombing is the worst terrorist atrocity ever to have taken place within the British frontiers. In view of this, the release of Mr. Megrahi back to Libya was blatant subversion of criminal justice. Further observation has been made that the judges who presided over Mr. Megrahi’s case had facts that indicted him in court and based on this, they had to believe that Megrahi was guilty as judged. The Scottish government made a unilateral decision to release Megrahi, who was received with immense jubilation and festivity in Libya. Mr. Gaddafi, the Libyan president, received him personally. John F. Kerry said Merahi’s release “turned the word ‘compassion’ on its head” (Adam, 2009).

A lot of distaste and anger over Mr. Megrahi’s unprecedented release was exhibited across the geographical divide, but great fury was observed in the US, which has regarded as outrageous and disgusting the frenzy with which the bomber convict was received in Libya. In a special report to The Washington Post, Adam reported how the family members of the victims reacted towards this eventuality. A case in point among many is that of Glenn Johnson, the father of Beth Ann, who died on her way home from London where she was studying, said in an interview that he was just devastated as a person who killed 270 people and had no compassion for them, could be given compassion.

He termed it as ‘another tragedy’ that families had to suffer. Conclusion The Scotland government, through her justice secretary MacAskill, subverted justice by releasing Abdel Basset Ali-Magrahi back to Libya and considering that this was a heinous crime, in fact, first class terrorism, the embittered parties has express right to vie an appeal. References Adam K. (2009): Man Convicted in Lockerbie Blast is Freed. Retrieved March 25, 2010 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/20/AR2009082000545.html