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Lockerbie bomber attends pro-Gadhafi rally

The former Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland made a rare public appearance on Tuesday at a rally in support of Moammar Gadhafi.
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/ Source: msnbc.com staff and news service reports

The former Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland made a rare public appearance on Tuesday at a rally in support of Moammar Gadhafi.

Libyan state television showed Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, who returned to Libya in 2009 after being freed from a Scottish jail on the grounds he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer, wearing traditional local garb and sitting in a wheelchair at a tribal meeting in Tripoli.

The Telegraph newspaper in the U.K. posted a video of the event on YouTube.

The Guardian newspaper said that the Libyan television presenter introduced Megrahi to the people at rally and later claimed that he was the victim of a "conspiracy." The paper described Megrahi as appearing to be frail.

The presenter also said Megrahi's release had been a victory against oppression, The Belfast Telegraph reported.

Decision 'shames Scotland'John Lamont, a Scottish Conservative lawmaker and a member of the Scottish Parliament's justice committee, told the paper that the Scottish government should say sorry for setting Megrahi free.

"The last thing relatives of the 270 people murdered by the Lockerbie Bomber need to see is the sight of him alive and well and free, almost two years after he was released by the SNP (Scottish National Party) government," he told The Belfast Telegraph.

"It was a bad decision made badly and one that shames Scotland around the world. The day is fast approaching when the SNP government will have to apologize for this terrible decision," he added.

Such meetings have been common as Gadhafi rallies support while rebels push on with their campaign to end his 41-year-rule.

Gadhafi is clinging to power despite the rebels' advances and four months of NATO airstrikes.

Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of playing a "significant part in planning and perpetrating" the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in which 270 people were killed.

He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum jail term of 27 years.

His release angered the United States, and his return to a hero's welcome in Libya was an embarrassment to the British government.

Megrahi's survival has raised U.S. questions about the medical advice that led to his being freed.