Lockerbie bomber release was wrong, Scots say in poll

A majority of Scots believe their government's decision to release Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi last week was wrong, according to a poll released on Friday.

ublished: 11:09PM BST 28 Aug 2009

Abdel Baset al Megrahi accompanied by Seif al-Islam el- Gadhafi, son of the Libyan leader upon his arrival at airport in Tripol Photo: AP

Only 32 per cent of the 1,005 people questioned by ICM Research said they agreed with the Scottish government's decision to free Megrahi on compassionate grounds on Aug 20, while 60 per cent of respondents said it was the wrong thing to do, according to the survey done for the BBC.

Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, was the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland.

The Scottish government released him on compassionate grounds and allowed him to return to Libya.

The BBC poll, for which a random sample of people from across Scotland were interviewed by telephone Aug 26-27, suggested 57 per cent believed Megrahi should have died in a Scottish prison.

Almost 70 per cent of respondents said they believed that factors other than legal grounds influenced Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill's decision, according to the poll.

No error margin was provided for the poll, but samples of that size typically have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points
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