Washington, August 21 (QNA) - The US has strongly condemned Thursday's decision by Scottish authorities to free Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing, and said he should be held under house arrest in Libya.  
Washington had lobbied for Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to remain in prison, where he was serving a life sentence as the only person convicted in the plane downing that killed 270 people, 189 of them American.   

"We have been in contact with the Scottish government indicating that we objected to it," the CNN quoted President Barack Obama as saying.
"We thought it was a mistake. We are now in contact with the Libyan government, and want to make sure that if in fact this transfer has taken place, he is not welcomed back in some way but instead should be under house arrest," Obama said in response to a question during a radio broadcast with a talk-show host.    

The top US law enforcement official and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed dismay over the release.  The State Department indicated that future ties between Washington and Tripoli would be influenced by how Libya treated Megrahi when he returned home.
The interests of justice have not been served by this decision," US Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.
"There is simply no justification for releasing this convicted terrorist.", she added.
"We have continued to communicate our long-standing position to UK government officials and Scottish authorities that Megrahi should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland," she said in a statement.
The Scottish government announced earlier on Thursday that it was freeing Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, on compassionate grounds because he is dying of cancer. Megrahi left Scotland on a flight home to Libya. (QNA)