ALBANY -- U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand issued statements Monday calling on the transitional authority in Libya to return convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to prison.
Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of taking part in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which resulted in the deaths of 269 passengers and crew -- including 35 Syracuse University students -- as well as 11 residents of the Scottish town of Lockerbie killed by the plane's wreckage.
Al-Megrahi was released two years ago this month by the Scottish government on "compassionate" grounds after doctors determined had roughly three months to live due to terminal prostate cancer.
Earlier this month, he was well enough to appear alongside Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi at a rally in Tripoli.
New York's senators appealed to Libya's transitional government, which on Monday was recognized by the Obama administration after rebel forces swept into Tripoli.
"Two years after an incorrect medical prognosis prompted his release from prison, the Lockerbie bomber is not only alive and well, but seems to have even outlived the Gadhafi regime," Schumer said. "As a transitional government takes hold in Libya, it should seek to undo the injustice of al-Megrahi's release by returning him to the jail cell where he belongs."
Gillibrand called al-Megrahi's recent appearance "another slap in the face not just for the families of the Lockerbie victims, but for all Americans and all nations of the world who are committed to bringing terrorists to justice."
Last summer, Schumer and Gillibrand called for a federal investigation into whether the oil giant BP lobbied for al-Megrahi's release to boost its business interests in Libya. The company -- at the time reeling from the aftermath of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- claimed that while it had supported a general prisoner transfer scheme worked out between Britain and Libya, it did not involve al-Megrahi.
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