From Episcopal Life Online-
The Scottish Government's decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, on compassionate grounds has been hailed as "a brave political choice" by the Most Rev. David Chillingworth, primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Megrahi, 57, who has terminal prostate cancer, returned to Libya August 20 to live out his final days.
Megrahi was jailed in January 2001 for 27 years when a bomb he had planted exploded aboard Pan American Flight 103 over the southern Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988. The terrorist attack killed 270 people, including 180 Americans.
Chillingworth acknowledged that the decision to release Megrahi was taken in the face of strong pressure from outside Scotland.
The Scottish government had been under intense pressure from the U.S. government to keep Megrahi behind bars. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said his release would be "absolutely wrong."
But Chillingworth, bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, said he respected and honored the courage that the Scottish government has shown. "On one side of the balance is the suffering caused by this appalling act of terrorism and the need to sustain public confidence in our system of justice," he said. "On the other side is the need to consider whether, in circumstances such as these, justice should be tempered with mercy and compassion. This decision sends to the world an important and positive message about our values."
The Rev. Ian Galloway of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland also supported the decision which, he said, sends "a message to the world about what it is to be Scottish."
More here-
http://www.episcopal-life.org/81808_113514_ENG_HTM.htm
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