Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The horror was compounded when a section of a wing of the airliner plunged into the Scottish town of Lockerbie, blasting a crater 155 feet long into the town, killing 11 more. Investigators concluded that Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi was responsible for the outrage, in reprisal for the US bombing of Tripoli in April 8, 1986. Two Libyan intelligence agents, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, were accused of the crime. . . . They were tried under Scottish law in the Netherlands. In January 2001, after an 84 day trial, Fhimah was acquitted but al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. In a controversial move, the Scottish government released al-Megrahi on August 20, 2009, on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from cancer and the doctors report claimed he had only three months to live. Al-Megrahi was given a hero's welcome when he returned to Libya and lived until May 20, 2012." [Furtado: 1001 Days]