Latest poll: Arabs support Al Megrahi's return to Libya
Thursday, November 05 2009
Doha, Qatar, November 4: Six out of 10 Arabs support the Scottish government's decision to send the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi back to Libya on compassionate grounds - but a similar number didn't believe Libya would have done the same.
The findings, contained in a YouGov poll, contradict the results of last month's Doha Debate, where a mainly Arab audience narrowly passed a motion deploring the release.
The poll was completed during the third week of October by more than 1,000 respondents from 18 Arab countries.
Over half - 55 percent - of those interviewed cast doubt on Al Megrahi's conviction for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. A similar number said they had no idea who else might have carried out the attack.
Roughly half the respondents believe that Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing only to rejoin the international community and attract investment to its oil industry.
