Lockerbie Bomber Buried in Libya

Just under 100 attend funeral of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 21, 2012 1:22 PM CDT
Lockerbie Bomber Buried in Libya
Freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi wears a medical as he sits on a wheelchair during a meeting with an African delegation at a hospital in Tripoli on September 9, 2009. Megrahi, who was controversially granted early release on August 20 by Scottish authorities on compassionate grounds,...   (Getty Images)

The only man convicted in the 1988 bombing on Pan Am Flight 103 has been buried with little fanfare near the Libyan capital with just under 100 family members and passers-by in attendance. Today's quiet funeral in Tripoli stands in stark contrast to the hero's welcome Abdelbaset al-Megrahi received almost three years ago from patron Moammar Gadhafi upon his return after serving eight years of a life sentence in Scotland. There were no government officials or security guards present at the funeral, just male relatives and strangers who happened to be going by. They prayed at the grave in traditional Islamic custom.

"My brother is innocent. He's a hero," Megrahi's brother, Mohammed, yelled at the funeral. "He's buried among his people. He's buried in his own country." To the outrage of victims' relatives, Scottish authorities released al-Megrahi on humanitarian grounds in 2009 after doctors predicted prostate cancer would kill him in six months; he lived nearly three years longer. (More Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi stories.)

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