Authorities Cite Humanitarian Concerns Related To Prostate Cancer

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, who is the only person convicted in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, is being released from prison on compassionate grounds following a diagnosis of terminal prostate cancer. Doctors say he may have only three months to live.

ABC News is reporting al-Megrahi will return to his home in Libya. He is expected to leave Scotland Thursday. Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill said he knows people will be opposed to the release, but said al-Megrahi "now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power... he will die."

The White House said it "deeply regrets" the decision by Scottish authorities to release al-Megrahi. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement that the U.S. has repeatedly maintained that al-Megrahi should serve out his term in Scotland. "Today, we remember those whose lives were lost on December 21, 1988, and we extend our deepest sympathies to the families who live each day with the loss of their loved ones due to this heinous crime," Clinton said.

A bomb exploded aboard Pan Am 103 on a flight from London to New York, killing all 259 people on board the aircraft as well as 11 on the ground in Lockerbie. It took 11 years to bring al-Megrahi to trial, where he was sentenced to a life term. A second person charged in the bombing, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted.

FMI: www.justice.gov.uk/index.htm