Local Women, Who Lost Kids In Lockerbie Tragedy, React To Bomber's Death
By Suzanne Monaghan and Oren Liebermann
PHILADELPHIA (CBS/AP) – A New Jersey woman who lost her son in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing shares her thoughts on the passing of the man responsible for her son's death. As well as another New Jersey mom whose daughter was killed.
When Eileen Monetti got a call telling her Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was dead, her first reaction was one of skepticism.
"He has supposedly been dead or dying a number of times especially since he's been released from the Scottish prison, so I am really, really, hopeful that this time it's true only because you don't want to keep going through this over and over and over again."
She says the news of al-Megrahi's death is just one chapter in what is a continuing story for her family.
"You know I'm a person who believes in a judgement after life and he has to deal with whoever is gonna judge him."
Monetti's 20-year-old son Rick was a junior at Syracuse. She says al-Megrahi's death does not bring closure because there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the details of the bombing.
A New Jersey mom whose daughter was killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing says the death of the only person ever convicted in the case should not be "an excuse" to end any ongoing investigations into who planned and carried out the blast.
Susan Cohen tells The Associated Press she has "no pity" for Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, whose death was announced Sunday. The Cape May Court House woman lost her 20-year-old daughter in the bombing and hopes that United States and British officials will now "dig even deeper" into the case .
Cohen was an outspoken opponent of the decision to release al-Megrahi and allow him to return home in 2009 on humanitarian grounds due to prostate cancer. She felt he should have stayed in prison until he died.
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