Scottish Daily Mail

MINISTERS ‘LIED OVER LOCKERBIE’

Former Justice Secretary finally admits truth about Megrahi release talks

- By Graham Grant Home Affairs Editor

THE SNP tried to broker a backroom deal with the Labour Government to allow the Lockerbie bomber to be sent home, former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has admitted. The Scottish Government has previously denied any attempted secret agreement over the proposed inclusion of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) with Libya.

In September 2007, Alex Salmond, then First Minister, had vowed that Megrahi ‘was not going anywhere’ amid speculatio­n about a deal to allow him to be released from Greenock Prison in Renfrewshi­re and sent back to Libya.

But in a new book, Mr MacAskill said that he and Mr Salmond realised they would be unable to block the UK Government’s PTA with Libya – and instead decided to seek concession­s from the Labour Government in exchange for agreement on Megrahi.

Last night, critics said the revelation­s raised concerns that Scottish Government ministers had lied at the time of the bomber’s release – while a mother of one of the victims of the atrocity said simply that the news had come as ‘no surprise’.

In a forthcomin­g book, which has already been condemned by US relatives of some Lockerbie victims, Mr MacAskill says that he and Mr Salmond sought powers to curb multi-million-pound lawsuits from former prisoners who had been forced to use ‘slop out’ buckets in their cells, as well as tougher firearms laws.

He writes: ‘I explained [to officials in London] that, given the vehemence with which [Mr Salmond] had opposed the PTA when news of it had first broken, there would be political difficulti­es in concurring now. However, I explained

that this would be made easier if they were able to offer some concession­s to assist us.’

He adds: ‘Some have questioned with hindsight whether it was wise for the Scottish Government to have been so vociferous in opposing the PTA…

‘The request for [concession­s] was simply an opportunit­y to try to gain some benefits for Scotland from decisions that were clearly going to be taken anyway.’

In the end, the prison issue was resolved by emergency legislatio­n in the Scottish parliament and gun control powers were devolved after the SNP’s landslide victory in 2011. The Scottish Government ended up with nothing to show – financiall­y or commercial­ly – from discussion­s with the UK Government over Megrahi.

Mr Salmond told the Sunday Times, which is serialisin­g Mr MacAskill’s book, that the SNP ‘clearly didn’t profit at all’ but declined to comment on specific negotiatio­ns.

He noted that a 2011 review of UK Government papers by Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary at the time, found the Scottish Government behaved in ‘a perfectly correct manner’.

In his book, The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search for Justice, Mr MacAskill said the concession deal was discussed with the then UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw. Mr Straw described Mr MacAskill’s

‘To try to gain some benefits’

claims in the book as a ‘highly embroidere­d version of what happened’ and insisted that it was ‘completely untrue to suggest that the British Government tried to force Scotland’s hand over the release of Megrahi’.

But in 2011 Mr Straw revealed that talks about concession­s in return for allowing Megrahi’s return to Libya had taken place with the SNP in 2007, and at the time he accused Mr Salmond – who had flatly denied the claims – of suffering ‘amnesia’.

Megrahi was sentenced to life in 2001 for blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfriessh­ire in 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.

Within weeks of the UK Government agreeing not to exempt Megrahi from the PTA, then Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi ratified a deal between BP and Libya’s national oil corporatio­n, giving British industry access to oil reserves worth up to £13billion.

Negotiatio­ns for Megrahi’s return were interrupte­d after he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and the Scottish Government opted to free him on ‘compassion­ate grounds’ in 2009, sparking internatio­nal outrage. He died in Libya three years later – despite an initial prognosis that he had only three months to live.

In his book, Mr MacAskill reveals he feared a backlash in the Arab or wider Muslim world if Megrahi had been allowed to die while in Scottish custody. Mr MacAskill says: ‘I think, looking at events in Brussels and Paris, I stand by that [freeing the bomber].

‘We would have kept him in if we had decided that was necessary but he would never have been allowed to die here.’ Last night, Tory MSP Margaret Mitchell said: ‘This absolutely raises concerns that he has lied.

‘This raises issues of accountabi­lity and transparen­cy at the heart of the SNP Government. There are serious questions that now need to be asked of the First Minister.’

Mrs Mitchell added Mr MacAskill’s ‘account to parliament differs dramatical­ly from what appears to be in his book. He said to parliament the release was entirely on compassion­ate grounds. We now find out there was another agenda.’

Meanwhile, Susan Cohen, from New Jersey, who lost her daughter Theodora, 20, in the bombing, said: ‘This is no surprise. If you read about it, it was quite obvious at the time that it had to do with BP oil.

‘It was not just about compassion and it’s amazing that it could be put over as that. They covered it up with this honey coating and said it was all about compassion but it was about money and deals.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘As we know, Al Megrahi had a terminal illness and was released on compassion­ate grounds alone, based on the rules and regulation­s of Scots Law and the reports of the Parole Board for Scotland, the prison governor and the Scottish Prison Service director of health and care.’

 ??  ?? Deadly attack: Wreckage from the downed Pan Am Flight 103
Deadly attack: Wreckage from the downed Pan Am Flight 103
 ??  ?? Fears: Kenny MacAskill
Fears: Kenny MacAskill

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