Nearly two years later, he remains alive. He served eight years of a 27-year sentence.
Libyan state television showed Megrahi, in a wheelchair and looking frail, at a gathering to support Gadhafi, who has viciously fought to hold on to power since rebels began fighting his rule in February.
"I try not to let it get to me anymore," said Kara Weipz, 38, a Mount Laurel resident whose brother Rick Monetti was killed in the bombing. "It was so bad when they released him from jail, I promised myself never to let myself get that way again."
Weipz called Megrahi's appearance "ridiculous and asinine," although she said it did not surprise her.
On Thursday, the reactions of family members ranged from frustration to resignation as they tried to keep the news from affecting their lives.
Pan Am 103 exploded four days before Christmas 1988. The plane, flying from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, held 270 passengers, including 38 from New Jersey and 14 from Pennsylvania.
Many of the victims, like Weipz's brother, were Syracuse University students returning home for the holidays.
Some U.S. lawmakers accused the United Kingdom of "cutting deals" to free Megrahi, prompting calls in Britain this year for an independent inquiry into Megrahi's release.
U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both New Jersey Democrats, sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in June calling for the U.S. government to do more to address the situation.
"The families of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 have suffered so much already, and the images of Megrahi at a pro-Gadhafi rally in Libya only adds salt to their wounds," Lautenberg said this week. "Parading one terrorist out to support another is an affront to justice and further affirmation that Megrahi was released from prison on false pretenses."
