London  - The freed Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi Thursday expressed "sympathy" for the families of the 270 people who died in the 1988 atrocity but insisted that he was wrongfully convicted.

In a statement issued on his behalf, the 57-year-old Libyan said he was relieved to return to his homeland after being freed from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds.

"To those victims' relatives who can bear to hear me say this: they continue to have my sincere sympathy for the unimaginable loss that they have suffered. To those who bear me ill-will, I do not return that to you," the terminally-ill Libyan said.

For him, his "horrible ordeal" would not end with his return to Libya. "It may never end for me until I die. Perhaps the only liberation for me will be death."

Al-Megrahi described the minimum 27-year life term imposed on him by a special court in 2001 as "nothing short of a disgrace."

"And I say in the clearest possible terms, which I hope every person in every land will hear: all of this I have had to endure for something that I did not do."

"The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction." (dpa)