US 'preferred' compassionate release of Lockerbie bomber, says Alex Salmond
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/7909248/US-preferred-compassionate-release-of-Lockerbie-bomber-says-Alex-Salmond.html________________________
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The US Government told Scottish officials that the Lockerbie bomber's release on compassionate grounds was ''far preferable'' to his transfer back to a Libyan jail, it was revealed today.
Published: 4:17PM BST 25 Jul 2010
Speaking to Sky News today, Mr Salmond said: ''I think a fair description of the American Government's position is that they didn't want al-Megrahi to be released. Photo:
EPA Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said today that while America ''didn't want'' Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to be released, they would rather see him freed on account of his terminal cancer, than under the prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Libya. Megrahi is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing in which 270 people were killed.
Libyan oil tycoons made £100,000 gift to Tories He was released in August last year after doctors said he was dying of prostate cancer and had three months to live - prompting fury in the US.
Last week, President Barack Obama told a White House press conference that the US had been ''surprised, disappointed and angry'' about Megrahi being released.
Speaking to Sky News today, Mr Salmond said: ''I think a fair description of the American Government's position is that they didn't want al-Megrahi to be released.
''However, if he was to be released, they thought it was far preferable for compassionate release as opposed to the prisoner transfer agreement.''
He also said this opposition was probably because the so-called ''deal in the desert'', signed by ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, which paved the way for the prisoner transfer agreement, was signed at the same time as an oil deal with Libya.
But the American Ambassador to the UK Louis Susman said the US had ''strongly objected'' to any type of release.
He said the US was examining whether its correspondence over the issue could be released but refused to be drawn on the reported memo.
''What you saw in the (Sunday) Times was supposedly a leaked memo or letter which did not state the facts of the letter and we don't comment on correspondence between two governments until both governments agree to release it,'' he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.
He added: ''It is quite clear that the US government was strongly against the release of Megrahi. We had a mutual understanding with the British Government that if he was tried and convicted he would serve his entire sentence in Scotland.
''The fact that the justice minister made a decision on compassionate grounds to release him was something we were not in favour of.
''We obviously had conversations with them in which we strongly objected to any type of release.''
Calls for the decision to release Megrahi to be re-examined grew in volume in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill, and reports that BP had lobbied for the bomber to be freed.
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced plans for an inquiry into the bomber's release, but Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and former foreign secretary Jack Straw have both rejected calls to give evidence in person.
And Mr Salmond today repeated that the Scottish Government had no contact with BP in the build up to Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds.
Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds was on the basis of a medical report which indicated he had three months to live - but next month will mark a year since he was freed.
Mr Salmond today insisted that estimating life expectancy for terminal cancer sufferers is not an ''exact science''.
He said the report compiled by Scottish Prison Service director of health Andrew Fraser was done in consultation with experts from the NHS in Scotland.
Ministers have published the report which concluded a three-month prognosis was reasonable.
