Lockerbie bomber must die in prison in Scotland

It’s an obscenity to talk about showing compassion for a mass murderer, but that’s exactly what’s going on with regard to Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, who was found guilty in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The explosion killed 259 people on the plane — many of them Americans coming home for Christmas — and the debris that rained down on Lockerbie killed 11.

Al-Megrahi, a Libyan spy, was convicted in February 2001 by a special jury of Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands after a trial of 85 days and 230 witnesses. He received a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 20 years.

The murderous terrorist has been in a prison in Scotland, but now Libya wants him to be sent home on compassionate grounds because he is terminally ill with cancer. To facilitate such a move, al-Megrahi’s lawyer has filed papers to drop an appeal of his conviction.

Even if the terrorist has just months to live, as some news reports suggest, there is no reason to give him the satisfaction of dying among his people. His death in Scotland is not only justified on legal grounds, but it would bring closure to the hundreds of parents, spouses and children of those who died. The reality is that of all the people involved in planning the attack and building the bomb, of giving the orders, paying for the operation, of all those who were guilty, only one individual has been punished.

This realization would be made all the more bitter if al-Megrahi were given permission to return home.

No compassion

Neither he nor his partners in crime showed any compassion for the innocent passengers of Flight 103.

Indeed, a co-defendant who beat the rap returned to Libya and was given a raucous reception at which Libyans praised Allah and condemned the United States.

The Obama administration through U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has strongly objected to al-Megrahi’s possible release.

Clinton called Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill to say that the bomber “should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland for his part in the bombing of the Pan Am 103.”

This is a no-brainer for the United Kingdom or any other nation that believes in the rule of law.

While Libya is no longer on the United States’ list of terrorist nations — after the Lockerbie bombing the United Nations froze the country’s overseas accounts, severed diplomatic relations and imposed a trade embargo — the people haven’t shed their hatred of the West.

In 1999, the U.N. lifted the sanctions after Libya agreed to change its terrorist ways.

However, al-Megrahi remains a reminder of the immorality and inhumanity of terrorism. To show him compassion is to demean the whole concept of crime and punishment.