Scotland has released terrorist Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the bomber of Pan Am flight 103, the flight that was blown to bits over Lockerbie, Scotland. He was released on humanitarian grounds, based on the fact that he is terminally ill with prostate cancer. On Wednesday December 21st, 1988, the aircraft was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and sixteen crew members, as well as eleven people on the ground in Lockerbie.
Today, Mr. Megrahi arrived home in Libya, greeted by thousands of well-wishers, as well as his family. As best I know, none of the pasengers on Pan Am flight 103 received similar consideration from Mr. Megrahi.
Unlike many here, I believe that the death penalty is justified in certain circumstances--this would have been one of them. But I also believe that life imprisonment is also a just conclusion to a murder. When 270 people die from a man's bomb, his life sentence ought to mean exactly that.
Among the victims of Flight 103 were 35 students from Syracuse University, four from Colgate University, four from Brown University, and two from the SUNY Oswego. These students were flying home from overseas study in London--one of my oldest friends' sisters (a Syracuse student at the time) was supposed to be on that flight, but miraculously wound up on a different plane. They never got to see their families again, their lives robbed by Megrahi. For me, I've never been able to forget video of sobbing Syracuse students after the University held a memorial service.
(The Remembrance Wall at Syracuse University)
Scotland says that they released Mr. Megrahi on humanitarian grounds. According to them, Megrahi has roughly three months to live, as he is dying of prostate cancer. We show compassion to our fellow man, and that is to be applauded, but there are many ways to show compassion that do not spit in the face of justice. How happy would 3-year-old Suruchi Rattan have been to live long enough to die of prostate cancer? We'll never know because Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi had no sense of compassion--he killed little Suruchi like he was nothing.
Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi deserved adequate medical attention in light of his declining state. It would have even been appropriate to make accommodations for his family to visit him. But to grant him a hero's welcome to Tripoli, rather than a doctor's care in a prison hospital is unconscionable. If a life sentence doesn't even really mean a life sentence, how many more Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahis will be encouraged? And how many more victims' families--like those of Pan Am 103--will be forced to cry not only over the loss of their loved ones, but also over the justice they were denied when the killer is released, and their scab is cruelly ripped off?