Fury at 'hero's welcome' for bomber

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, was met in his homeland by a jubilant crowd.

He was earlier freed by Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds after serving seven years of his life sentence for 270 counts of murder.

The cancer-stricken 57-year-old had changed out of the white tracksuit he wore on his release from Glasgow's Greenock Prison into a smart dark suit when he exited the plane at Tripoli airport. Many of Megrahi's well-wishers were pictured waving the Scottish flag alongside the distinctive green Libyan flags.

Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter died when the Pan Am jet exploded above Lockerbie in 1988, condemned the celebrations. "I think a hero's welcome is entirely inappropriate in the circumstances," she said. "I know the man maintains his innocence but I think discretion would have been the right thing in these circumstances. He has been released on compassionate grounds but he remains a convicted man."

Politicians also spoke out against the joyous greeting given to the convicted mass murderer, with Scottish parliamentarians particularly angry that the St Andrew's Cross was used to welcome Megrahi to Tripoli.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond condemned the welcome given to the Lockerbie bomber, but he defended the decision to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

Mr Salmond told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that the scenes in Tripoli were neither "proper, wise or appropriate", and the Scottish Government bore no responsibility for them. He said: "I don't think the matter of the homecoming in Tripoli airport was the right thing for the Libyan authorities to allow. But we are not responsible for the conduct of the Libyan authorities, we are responsible for the conduct of the Scottish Government."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband refused to say whether he agreed with the Scottish Justice Secretary's decision but said he deplored the reception Megrahi received in Tripoli. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Obviously the sight of a mass murderer getting a hero's welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing."

Kenny MacAskill's decision was met with anger on both sides of the Atlantic. US president Barack Obama also urged the Libyans to make sure he remained under house arrest once he was home, adding that the Americans believed the Scottish Government had made a "mistake".