Fury over heros welcome for Lockerbie bomber

British and Scottish officials joined the United States on Friday in criticising the heros welcome Libya choreographed for Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi...

British and Scottish officials joined the United States on Friday in criticising the heros welcome Libya choreographed for Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi,the only person convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing,after Scotland ordered his release from prison on compassionate grounds.

British Prime Minister Gordon Browns office said on Friday he had written to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi,seeking a low-key reception for Megrahi. A spokesman said Brown had asked Gaddafi to act with sensitivity. Megrahi,who is dying of prostate cancer,was greeted by hundreds of young Libyans who welcomed him,cheering and waving Libyan and Scottish flags at the military airport.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi,son of the Libyan leader,flew with Megrahi,giving his release an official imprimatur and reinforcing the official Libyan view that Megrahi was a scapegoat used by the West to reinforce its depiction of Libya as a pariah state.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said on Friday that he did not believe the celebratory welcome was appropriate.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: The sight of a mass murderer getting a heros welcome in Tripoli is deeply disturbing,especially for the 270 families and also for anyone who has got an ounce of humanity in them.

The welcome was another slight for Washington,which had sought to persuade Libya not to permit a heros welcome for Megrahi and had opposed his release. President Obama had opposed the decision,and the White House has asked that Megrahi be placed under house arrest,at a minimum.

Brown made clear that the decision to free Megrahi had been taken by the Scottish government,not the British government.

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Megrahis release and jubilant arrival in Libya drew anger from families of those who died when a bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on December 21,1988,killing 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. Of the dead,189 were Americans.

Reports on Friday said Megrahi would meet with Gaddafi,who has long sought his transfer and is preparing to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the coup that overthrew King Idris and brought him to power on September 1,1969. Western officials said they feared Gaddafi would parade Megrahi at those celebrations as the emblem of a diplomatic triumph.

Megrahi,57,has always denied being involved in the bombing. He again protested his innocence as he left Scotland on Thursday after serving 8 years of a 27-year minimum sentence.

Compassionate release on the face of it is insane for a convicted mass murderer8230; now we have to live with this, said Susan Cohen of New Jersey,whose 20-year-old daughter died in the attack.

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After his release from Greenock prison in Scotland,Megrahi traveled in a white van flanked by police cars to Glasgow Airport,where a special VIP-configured Airbus plane from Libyas Afriqiyah airline awaited him.

Hes getting away with it; thats exactly what I thought, said Rosemary Wolfe of South Carolina,whose stepdaughter Miriam was killed in the bombing.

In a statement issued by his lawyers after he left prison,Megrahi said: All of this I have had to endure for something that I did not do8230; To those victims relatives who can bear to hear me say this: they continue to have my sincere sympathy for the unimaginable loss that they have suffered, the statement said.