22 Aug 2009
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has met with Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi as the terminally ill 57-year-old vows to clear his name.

The televised meeting late on Friday was taken as defiant move by the Libyan leader, following strong criticism from the United States and the United Kingdom over the “hero's welcome” he received from hundreds of cheering Libyans upon his arrival at Tripoli.

Officials from Scotland, the UK and the United States slammed the reception that they respectively termed “inappropriate,” “deeply distressing” and “disgusting”.

Gaddafi hugged Megrahi and thanked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth for “encouraging” Scotland to release the dying prisoner from a Scottish jail.

Scotland handles its judicial affairs separately from the UK.

Britain quickly denied that any clandestine business deals with the oil-rich Libya had affected Megrahi's release, following comments made by Gaddafi who stressed the release had been “in the interest of relations between the two countries.”

However, Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam said in an interview broadcast by the Libyan channel al-Mutawassit that Megrahi's release was a 'victory,' as he had been a trump card in all of Britain's commercial contracts with Libya.

In an interview with Britain's Times newspaper published on Saturday, Megrahi said he understood why there was an international uproar over his release, but that he would endeavor to clear his name.

"If there is justice in (Britain) I would be acquitted or the verdict would be quashed because it was unsafe. There was a miscarriage of justice," the daily quoted Megrahi as saying.

Megrahi, who suffers from prostate cancer, is the only person to have been convicted of the atrocious bombing of Pan Am Boeing 747 that killed all 259 people onboard and 11 people on the ground when the plane exploded above the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

Most of the passengers were US nationals.
presstv