New Yorkers choose to leave Khadafy 'homeless' in the Big Apple

New York, Sep 21(ANI): Agents for Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy had to face strong resentment from a New York real-estate broker, when they approached him to rent an Upper East Side house in New York City prior to the leader's visit for the UN General Assembly.

According to reports, Jason Haber, a broker for Prudential Douglas Elliman, was furious over the Libyan Government's hero's welcome in Tripoli to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of 270 counts of murder for his part in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland.

"They kept asking, 'What would be the price? What would be the price?' I thought about it and said, 'Why don't you send Megrahi back to Scotland, and then maybe we can work something out.' They hung up on me immediately," The New York Post quoted Haber, as saying.

"I know they are a member nation of the UN, so they get whatever limited rights to come and stay here, but for us living here we have the right to say no, given world events going on right now," Haber added.

Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government on August 20, 2009 following reports that he had terminal prostate cancer and had less than three months to live.

Uproar over the release has made it hard for the leader to find a place in the US, earlier, residents of Englewood, New Jersey, had already rejected his plan to stay at a home that the Libyan Mission owns there.

Following that rejection, the Libyans finally settled on housing Khadafy at the country's East 48th Street mission. (ANI)