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Release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber

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Victims' family members and advocates are grieving anew as the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland -- which killed 270 people -- was released Thursday from a British prison.

Most families outraged at Pan Am 103 bomber's release

Wow. What can I say except Scotland sucks.

Edited by Rearden_Steel
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He also got a hero's welcome in Lybia.

Either thousands of lybians do regard him as a hero and decided to stage a public show of support, or the Colonel made them. I don't know which possibility is more disturbing.

There are no words to define this latest outrage. Showing compassion is all well and good, to those who deserve it. This murderous bastard deserves lots fo thigns, but not one speck of compassion. It's also a good argument for the death penalty.

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Is there anyone taking responsibility for this decision, or are the people who arranged his release hiding behind bureaucracy, like cowards? CNN doesn't seem to mention a single name, just "governments".

Wolf Blitzer interviewed the Scottish Justice responsible. I saw his name was 'MacAskill', but I didn't hear the interview.

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Here is the transcript of the CNN interview with the official who released him.

Blitzer: Do you realize that you've made their grief so much more powerful right now because they see the picture of this guy walking on a plane and flying back home to Libya where he is about to be received with a hero's welcome?

MacAskill: I've released a sick man. The medical evidence given to me in a report dated 10th August by the Scottish Prison Service says that he's terminally ill. That is a sentence that I cannot impose in Scotland, no court could. We do not have the death penalty. It's final, terminal and irrevocable.

That sentence that he now faces cannot be revoked by any court or overruled by any jurisdiction. I have decided to allow him to go home to die. I am showing his family some compassion. I accept there was a compassion not shown to families in the United States, or in Scotland.

But we have values, we will not debase them, and we will seek to live up to those values of humanity that we pride ourselves on. He was brought to justice after tremendous -- what, not simply by Scottish police and prosecution authorities, but by the United States.

Equally, as I say, in Scotland, justice is tempered with compassion. And that, as I say, is why he has been allowed to go home to die.

Apparently in Scotland "compassion" trumps justice and the perpetrators are to receive more compassion then their victims. What kind of disgusting and corrupt place this must be where terrorist have more rights then their victims.

Edited by Rearden_Steel
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Here is the transcript of the CNN interview with the official who released him.

Apparently in Scotland "compassion" trumps justice and the perpetrators are to receive more compassion then their victims. What kind of disgusting and corrupt place this must be where terrorist have more rights then their victims.

Well of course they do- this is a nation that took all its citizens' guns away!

A nation that sinks to that level of depravity.. well?

I feel very badly for them.

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I think the general feeling in Scotland (eg. among the legal profession) is that the trial/verdict was a sham and the man should never have been locked up, but the governments colluded to ensure that he was for some reason. So therefore, he's being released on compassionate grounds because they think his incarceration is unfair, or that the appeal (which he'll never live to know) would have cleared his name.

Of course, they can't SAY as much because it would undermine the reputation of the justice system, so they just give this vague 'country of values' answer.

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I think the general feeling in Scotland (eg. among the legal profession) is that the trial/verdict was a sham and the man should never have been locked up, but the governments colluded to ensure that he was for some reason. So therefore, he's being released on compassionate grounds because they think his incarceration is unfair, or that the appeal (which he'll never live to know) would have cleared his name.

Of course, they can't SAY as much because it would undermine the reputation of the justice system, so they just give this vague 'country of values' answer.

I've heard this excuse too. Someone has mentioned to me that they think he was unjustly convicted and not the bomber. If that's really what's going on here, they should say so. Otherwise, we have to assume that he was in fact guilty of this terrible crime, in which case he really should not have been allowed to live as long as he has anyhow.

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Found this article in the Telegraph: The release of the Lockerbie bomber was linked to trade deals between Britain and Libya, Col Muammar Gaddafi’s son, claimed last night.

Apparently the decision by Scottish ministers to free the biggest mass murderer in British legal history was to form a deal with a corrupt terrorist state that has already funded murder on Scottish territory.

Edited by Rearden_Steel
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