Scotland’s release of Pan Am 103 Terrorist Bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was based more on personal gain than compassion, Boston University students said in a debate Wednesday. ‘It wasn’t compassionate,’ College of Arts and Sciences senior Cassandra Jenecke said. ‘It wasn’t out of the goodness of Scotland’s heart, it was a coldhearted economic move and an attempt to solidify their position in the world. I’m disgusted with the British government and Scotland.’ Over 40 students gathered for a debate led by BU International Affairs Association President Frank Pobutkiewicz and Vice President Raphaella Zerey on the recent release of the sentenced Libyan terrorist bomber. Megrahi was sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in prison in Scotland, but was released on Aug. 20 after serving only eight years after medical evidence showed that he had three months to live due to prostate cancer. He received a hero’s welcome upon his arrival in Libya. He was charged for a terrorist bombing that killed 259 people on board Pan Am Flight 103, and 11 more on the ground on Dec. 21, 1988, a total of 270 casualties, according to The New York Times. Students said they were skeptical that the release was appropriate, even after taking his illness into account. ‘It sickened me to the depths of my soul,’ Jenecke said, opening up the debate. ‘[The victims] were people our age, struck out, after having the time of their lives in a foreign country.” School of Education freshman Corey Wisler agreed with Jenecke. ‘None of them had the chance to grow old,’ she said. ‘But because he is being released, he’ll be able to get visits from his family, from his friends, and that seems terribly unfair.’ The majority of the debate centered on BUIAA’s question of whether or not the Scottish government, or any government, would leverage prisoners in order to acquire better trade relations. Many BU students said they assumed that this was the case.’ CAS sophomore Adam Even Engel said the British government only released Megrahi in order to boost their trading system with Libya, using his illness to benefit Britain’s reputation in the world’s eyes.’ ‘He was diagnosed with terminal cancer and they have something to gain from it,’ he said. ‘It makes them look good because they’ve just released somebody on ‘compassionate grounds.’ They are releasing somebody about to die for the sake of gaining a huge foothold on a part of the world that is so hard to make peace with.’ But Engel said he thinks Scotland has jurisdiction over its own national decisions. ‘ ‘I think that the Scottish government was acting on its own, because, for all intents and purposes, they are their own government,’ Engel said. ‘We never asked other countries if Bill Clinton could go to North Korea to release our people. This was a trial done by the Scottish government. It was their right to do it.’