Associated Press
The wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103.
Historic Headlines
Learn about key events in history and their connections to today.
On Dec. 21, 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground.
The New York Times
reported that the Boeing 747 aircraft “was flying at 31,000 feet when it suddenly disappeared from
radar and crashed into two rows of houses, setting them on fire.” It added: “BBC television late tonight broadcast pictures of raging fires, devastated houses and cars and shreds of aircraft wreckage.
Witnesses said the huge aircraft had left a deep crater where it came down, near a gasoline station.”
The Times noted: “There was no immediate indication of the cause of the crash. British officials would not respond to speculation by some about a structural failure or an on-board explosion in the jumbo jet.”
An investigation conducted by Scottish police found that a bomb, likely planted by Libyan men, had caused the crash. In 1991, Scottish and American officials issued murder indictments
against the Libyans
Lamin Khalifah Fhimah
and
Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi
,
chief of security for Libyan Arab Airlines and a suspected Libyan intelligence officer. Libya refused to extradite the two subjects, prompting the United Nations to issue sanctions against the country.
Libya finally agreed to hand over the subjects in 1999 on the condition that their trial take place in a neutral country. The two men, who both maintained their innocence, went on trial before Scottish judges in the
Netherlands. In 2001, the court found Mr. Megrahi guilty of murder, but acquitted Mr. Fhimah of all charges.
Connect to Today:
Sixteen months after Mr. Megrahi’s conviction, the Libyan government admitted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay $10 million to each victim’s family, contingent on the United Nations rescinding
its sanctions. Mr. Megrahi has never admitted his guilt, and he was engaged in an appeal in 2009 when doctors in Scotland diagnosed a terminal case of prostate cancer. He was given a compassionate release from prison
that year because he was thought to be near death. However, he is still alive late in 2011 and, with the collapse of
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi
‘s
government during the
2011 Libyan Revolution
, many in the Britain and the United States are calling for his
return to custody, “hoping for a fuller accounting of the crime and the Qaddafi government’s role in it,” according to the Times Topics overview of Mr. Megrahi.
What are your thoughts on releasing convicted terrorists from prison on compassionate grounds, like when terminal illness makes death appear to be imminent? Does it make a difference if the prisoner in question has
maintained his or her innocence? Why or why not? In this particular situation, what, if anything, do you think might be gained by extraditing Mr. Megrahi and re-examining the Lockerbie case?
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