Lockerbie, Scotland (WLTX) – Thousands were on hand to greet Abdel Baset al-Megrahi Thursday when his plane touched down at a military airport in
Triploi. The only man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing returned home to Libya to die after Scotland released him from prison Thursday, a decision that outraged some relatives of the 270 people killed when the jetliner blew up over a Scottish town. There was a festive atmosphere with some wearing T-shirts with al-Megrahi’s picture. Others waved Libyan and Scottish flags while Libyan songs blared. Many here see al-Megrahi as an innocent scapegoat of the West. Angry relatives of victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, expressed outrage Thursday after his release. “This was a terrible insult and affront to the families, but also to their own (Scottish) people,” said Rosemary Wolfe of Myrtle Beach, S.C., whose stepdaughter, Syracuse University student Miriam Wolfe, 20, died on the flight. She said she and her husband were “devastated” over the release. “This is probably the greatest terrorist act committed in Scotland,” she said. “It makes no sense, and he didn’t have to do it.” Al-Megrahi, 57, was released Thursday after serving eight years of a life sentence in a Scottish prison. He was convicted in 2001 of taking part in the bombing on Dec. 21, 1988, and sentenced to life in prison.
The airliner – which was carrying mostly American passengers to New York- blew up as it flew over Scotland. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground died when the aircraft crashed into the town of Lockerbie.