Pan Am Flight 103

Lockerbie Bomber Freed

Sickly perp goes home to die.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is responsible for the deaths of 270 people, but Scotland has shown him compassion. Thursday morning a Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill allowed al-Megrahi, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, to return home to Libya in time for Ramadan. "Our belief dictates that justice be served but mercy be shown," MacAskill said, adding that although "some hurts can never heal," that "Mr. al-Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power." In 2001, al-Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, which killed all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. Most of the passengers were American. al-Megrahi departed Scotland via a plane Thursday morning bound for Libya.