Wiesenthal Center Statement on Today's Release of Lockerbie Mastermind

August 20, 2009

WIESENTHAL CENTER STATEMENT ON TODAY'S RELEASE OF LOCKERBIE MASTERMIND

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center is shocked by the release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the convicted mastermind of the Pan Am Lockerbie mass murder," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Center's Associate Dean

"The life sentence originally given to this mass murder was society's way of standing up for justice and in solidarity with the innocent victims and hundreds of families whose lives were permanently crippled by this premeditated horror. This terrorist was sentenced to die in jail. The outrageous decision to free him recalls the Jewish Medrashic saying, "He who shows compassion to the cruel will in the end be cruel to the compassionate," Cooper added.

"The Wiesenthal Center will continue to stand in solidarity with the victims and their families," Cooper concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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