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MacAskill made the decision to release the 57-year-old Libyan agent, who is dying of prostate cancer, on compassionate grounds. He had served eight years of a minimum 27-year sentence.
“It is my decision that Mr al-Megrahi … be released on compassionate grounds and be returned to Libya to die,” MacAskill said.
Al-Megrahi is a former Libyan agent who was imprisoned for the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
The decision to release al-Megrahi was criticised by the US government and some victims’ families, who believe al-Megrahi, held responsible for the 270 deaths in the Lockerbie bombing, should remain behind bars for life.
U.S. President barack Obama, described the release as a “mistake” and said that al-Megrahi should be placed under house arrest on his return, not simply released from custody.
But MacAskill told reporters on Thursday: “Mr. al-Megrahi is a dying man; he is terminally ill with prostate cancer and my decision is that he returns home to die.” Al-Megrahi was released from Greenock prison in Scotland and escorted by a police convoy to Prestwick airport in Glasgow on Thursday afternoon for a direct flight to Libya.
In a statement following his release, al-Megrahi said: “I am obviously very relieved to be leaving my prison cell at last and returning to Libya, my homeland. The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction. I have been faced with an appalling choice: to risk dying in prison in the hope that my name is cleared posthumously or to return home still carrying the weight of the guilty verdict, which will never now be lifted. The choice which I made is a matter of sorrow, disappointment and anger, which I fear I will never overcome.”
Al-Megrahi’s was freed days after he dropped his second appeal against his conviction, a condition necessary for the early release application to be considered.
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