Updated on
Summary
A plane carrying freed Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi has taken off from Glasgow Airport bound for Libya. Scottish officials freed the former Libyan intelligence agent Thursday on compassionate grounds after eight years in jail. Al-Megrahi has terminal prostate cancer and has been given less than three months to live. Al-Megrahi was taken from Greenock Prison to the airport in a police van. He walked slowly up the steps of the Airbus operated by Libyan airline Afriqiyah, unaided but leaning on a cane. Al-Megrahi, 57, was convicted in 2001 of taking part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988. He was sentenced to life in prison. The airliner exploded over Scotland, and all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground died when it crashed into the town of Lockerbie. The U.S. opposed the release and families of some Lockerbie victims reacted angrily to the decision.
