Thaindian News

Washington, Aug 21 (IBNS) US President Barack Obama on Friday said releasing Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset Mohamed al-Megrahi, was a mistake and that he should be put under house arrest.

“We thought it was a mistake to release him,” Obama said in a radio interview as Megrahi reached his home in Libya.

Obama said his government had spoken to Scottish authorities indicating the US had objected to the release.

“We are now in contact with the Libyan government, and want to make sure that if in fact this transfer has taken place, that he’s not welcomed back in some way, but instead should be under house arrest.”

On Thursday night, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a statement said: “The United States is deeply disappointed by the decision of the Scottish Executive to release Abdel Basset Mohamed al-Megrahi who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which took the lives of 270 persons, including 189 Americans.”

“We have continued to communicate our long-standing position to UK government officials and Scottish authorities that Megrahi should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland,” she said.

“Today, we remember those whose lives were lost on December 21, 1988 and we extend our deepest sympathies to the families who live each day with the loss of their loved ones due to this heinous crime,” she said.

Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, has served eight years of a life sentence for killing 270 people on Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988.

The Scottish authorities released Megrahi on compassionate grounds and allowed to go home to die with his family.

Megrahi, 57, who boarded a flight from Glasgow has reached Libyan capital Tripoli to a ‘hero’s welcome’, TV reports said.

Earlier in a statement Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill said: “Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion be available.