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US Lockerbie families upset by priest's visit

Paul Bignell
Sunday 21 December 2008 01:00 GMT
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A former Lockerbie priest has provoked anger among relatives of victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing by accepting an invitation to speak at a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the tragedy in the US today.

The Very Rev Patrick Keegans, who narrowly escaped death when part of the bombed plane crashed near his home in the Scottish borders town in 1988, has outraged American families by calling for the man convicted of the bombing, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, to be released.

Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, 20, died on the plane, said yesterday: "Some people have asked him not to say anything expressing his views. The very fact that he's speaking there is very unfortunate."

"The American families are 100 per cent support the idea that Libya were behind this, so it's unfortunate in that respect. My daughter's been dead for 20 years and that's all that matters to me at the end of the day," her husband, Daniel, said.

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