The Libyan man jailed in Scotland for blowing up a US airliner¹ over Lockerbie in 1988 has arrived back in Libya after being set free.

一位利比亚男子1988年因在洛克比炸毁一架美国客机而被囚禁于苏格兰，日前他被释放并返回利比亚。

The Scottish government released Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who is 57 and has terminal cancer（晚期癌症）, on compassionate³（有同情心） grounds.

US President Barack Obama said the move was "a mistake", and some relatives of US victims reacted angrily.

Most of the 270 people who died in the bombing were Americans.

In a radio interview, Mr Obama said: "We have been in contact with the Scottish government, indicating that we objected to this. We thought it was a mistake."

He added that his administration had told the Libyan government that Megrahi should not receive a hero's welcome and should be placed under house arrest.

In London, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said any decision to release Megrahi "was for the Scottish government and ministers to take, as they have done".

Correspondents say the Libyan authorities will regard his release as a triumph.

Hundreds of people waved Libyan flags as his plane landed at Tripoli airport at 1830 GMT.

Within minutes Megrahi was whisked（扫，迅速移动） away to meet Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi and then his elderly mother, the BBC's Christian⁴ Fraser reports from the scene.

Compassion²

It was a jet owned by Col Gaddafi that carried Megrahi back to Libya after his release on Thursday from Scotland's Greenock Prison.

The Scottish government said it had consulted widely before Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill made his decision on applications for Megrahi's compassionate release or his transfer to a Libyan jail.

Mr MacAskill told a news conference that he had rejected the application for a prisoner transfer.

However, after taking medical advice it was expected that three months was a "reasonable estimate" of the time Megrahi had left to live.

"Mr al-Megrahi did not show his victims any comfort or compassion. They were not allowed to return to the bosom⁵ of their families to see out their lives, let alone their dying days," he said.

"But that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his final days."

Mr MacAskill continued: "Our justice system demands that judgement be imposed, but compassion be available.

"For these reasons and these reasons alone, it is my decision that Mr Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the Lockerbie bombing, now terminally ill with prostate cancer（前列腺癌）, be released on compassionate grounds and be allowed to return to Libya to die."

In a statement released after his departure from HMP Greenock, Megrahi continued to protest his innocence⁶.

He said: "The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction.

"I have been faced with an appalling⁷（令人震惊的） choice: to risk dying in prison in the hope that my name is cleared posthumously⁸（在死后） or to return home still carrying the weight of the guilty verdict, which will never now be lifted.

"The choice which I made is a matter of sorrow, disappointment and anger, which I fear I will never overcome."

'No remorse⁹'

The families of American victims of the Lockerbie bombing reacted angrily to the news.

Kara Weipz, of Mt Laurel, New Jersey¹⁰, who lost her brother Richard Monetti, said: "It is an utter insult and utterly¹¹ disgusting... I don't show compassion for someone who showed no remorse（懊悔，悔恨）."

New York state resident Paul Halsch, whose 31-year-old wife was killed, said of Mr MacAskill's decision: "This might sound crude or blunt, but I want him returned from Scotland the same way my wife Lorraine was and that would be in a box."

However, British relatives' spokesman Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora¹² in the atrocity¹³（暴行）, reiterated¹⁴（反复做，重申） his view that Megrahi had "nothing to do with" the bombing.

"I don't believe for a moment that this man was involved in the way that he was found to have been involved," he said.

Megrahi was convicted of murder in January 2001 at a trial held under Scottish law in the Netherlands.