Gordon Brown Breaks His Silence On The Lockerbie Bomber Release

by Yuliya Talmazan | August 25, 2009 at 03:55 pm

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Gordon Brown finally broke his silence on the matter of the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi. Brown denounced the release, saying he was "angry" and "repulsed" by the decision to release Al-Megrahi and the warm welcome that Al-Megrahi has received upon his return to Libya. Brown's response comes with a considerable delay given that Al-Megrahi was released on August 20. Some said Brown "ducked" questions about the release of the Lockerbie bomber, damaging U.K.'s reputation.

Brown stressed that the release was the decision made by Scotland's Parliament, and that his government had no control over the release.

"When I met (Libyan leader) Colonel (Moammar) Gadhafi over the summer I made it absolutely clear to him that we had no role in making the decision about Megrahi's future.

"Because it was a quasi-judicial matter, because it was a matter legislated for by the Scottish parliament and not by us . . . it was a matter over which we could not interfere, and (we) had no control over the final outcome."

Brown concluded by saying he hopes that Britain's relationships with the United States and the rest of the world won't be undermined as the result of the Lockerbie bomber's release.