Released Lockerbie Bomber Chats With UK Reporter

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 22, 2009 10:25 AM CDT
Released Lockerbie Bomber Chats With UK Reporter
In this image made from television Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, right, who was found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, meets with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, in Tripoli, Libya on Friday.   (AP Photo/Jamahiriya Broadcasting via APTN)

London Times reporter Martin Fletcher didn’t expect to be admitted when he visited the home of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber who was released and flown home to Tripoli to a hero's welcome. But admitted he was. “You came to our house,” Megrahi explained in perfect English. “It is our culture.” With the UK in an uproar over charges that he was released in trade for future oil deals with Libya, Megrahi proceeded to proclaim his innocence, and if he harbored any bitterness, he hid it well.

“If there is justice in the UK I would be acquitted,” he told the first Western journalist to interview him, and vowed to release evidence before he dies to prove it. Being home, he said, was “something amazing. I’m very, very happy.” He laughed off Barack Obama’s demand that he be placed under house arrest. “The only place I have to go is the hospital,” he said. “Don’t worry, Mr. Obama—it’s just three months.” (More Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi stories.)

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