Lockerbie Bomber Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi Buried In Libya

Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi, otherwise known as the Lockerbie Bomber, was buried in Tripoli, Libya on Monday, almost three years after he was released from a Scotland jail.

According to The New York Daily News, Al-Megrahi, who died of prostate cancer Sunday, was the sole person convicted in the 1988 Pan-Am 103 bombings. He was originally released from prison in 2009, after being diagnosed with cancer, as doctors thought he only had a few months left to live.

The funeral was a quiet family affair, nothing like the fanfare he received upon returning to Tripoli in 2009. The New York Daily News reports that when he arrived after being released from prison, he was greeted with fanfare and flags waving. People even rushed out onto the tarmac to greet him.

The Daily Mail reports that Chuck Schumer of New Work stated:

“This man was a horrible man. It would have been better if he’d not died in freedom but died in prison. That’s what he deserved…I still believe that the Scottish government, perhaps with the participation of the British government, created a major injustice when they let him out.”

Eileen Monetti, who lost her son Rick, 20, in the bombing of Pan Am 103, stated about the death of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi that:

“I feel nothing at the news, just nothing. Megrahi was a distraction that stopped us from finding out the truth. Now that Megrahi has died hopefully the Libyan government will give more information to the US and the UK about the bombing…It’s now up to a higher power to judge him for his crimes.”

Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001, after being found guilty for blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. The blast killed 259 people on board the plane, as well as 11 more who were on the ground.

According to the Telegraph, while Abdel Baset al-Megrahi’s body was being lowered into the ground, a relative shouted:

“He is innocent, he is innocent.”

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