2012-05-21 13:05:58 Lockerbie Bomber Died from Cancer-Related Complications
Transcript by Newsy: http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsyWorld?feature=guide
(Image Source: Julie Howden/The Herald)
BY HANK KOEBLER
ANCHOR CARISSA LOETHEN
The man convicted of killing 270 people by planting a bomb on an airplane in 1988 has died from cancer-related complications. Sky News has the details:
"The Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has died at his home in the Libyan capitol of Tripoli. He was the only person convicted over the terrorist attack in 1988."
Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison in 2001, but was released in 2009 because doctors estimated Al-Megrahi only had three months left to live. He actually ended up surpassing the doctors expectations by almost 3 years.
Bert Ammerman, whose brother died in the bombing, tells Fox News:
"He massacred 270 people, 259 at 31,000 feet in the air. The last thing he deserved was to be around his family and friends in his own home. Now that was despicable."
A spokesman for the victims' families tells Huffington Post that Al-Megrahi's death was to be deeply regretted.
"As someone who attended the trial I have never taken the view that Megrahi was guilty... Megrahi is the 271st victim of Lockerbie."
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie told BBC the death was "an end to a chapter of one of the worst terrorist events in Scotland," and also raised questions about al-Megrahi's conviction:
"There should be no celebration that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has died. Instead it should act as a spur to establish the facts including whether crucial forensic evidence was withheld from the trial."
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond told BBC and other news outlets that the Lockerbie investigation is still ongoing and that prosecutors never believed al-Megrahi was the only person responsible for the bombing.