Mother of Long Beach Casualty Reflects on Lockerbie Bomber's Death

The mother of a Long Beach woman murdered in the bombing on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, reflected in cold comfort on the death of the convicted bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was freed from a Scottish prison more than 30 months ago to return to his native Libya, where he died Sunday.  

Susan Cohen, the mother of Theodora Cohen — a 20-year-old Long Beach resident who was among 270 people, including 11 from Long Island, killed in the terrorist attack — said that al-Megrahi was privileged to die surrounded by his family, according to Newsday:

"Well, Megrahi should have died in a Scottish hospital, a Scottish prison. He got to die with his family around him. And my daughter was not given any opportunities like that."

Al-Megrahi, 60, who was convicted in 2001 in connection with the attack on the flight from London to Kennedy Airport but maintained his innocence, was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and was released from prison on the grounds that he had only three months to live in 2009. He was the only suspect convicted for the bombing that Libya claimed responsibility for and many believe was ordered by former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed by rebels when his regime fell last October.

Cohen went on to say that al-Megrahi was a tool of Gadhafi’s and that it is important for the victims’ families to continue to pressure the U.S. and British governments to fully investigate the bombing to find out if others were involved.