New claim on Megrahi 'balderdash' says First Minister

Published on Tuesday 25 January 2011 17:36

ALEX Salmond has described as "balderdash" claims published today that he placed the release of the Lockerbie bomber on the negotiating table with UK ministers.

The American magazine Vanity Fair alleges in its latest edition that the First Minister held private discussions with former Justice Secretary Jack Straw in which he offered to water down his opposition to release under the UK's Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Libya.

Quoting a UK official, the magazine says the "quid pro quo" was that Mr Straw would push through a change in the law to stem the glut of human rights cases being brought by prisoners against Scottish ministers over the practice of "slopping out".

That change, which puts a one-year time bar on cases, was agreed by the UK and Scottish governments in 2009 and is estimated to have saved the public purse as much as 50 million.

Mr Salmond yesterday hit back at the allegations, with a Scottish Government spokesperson describing the report as "complete and utter nonsense".

Scottish Government officials insist the decision to allow the bomber to go home was taken entirely in good faith.

It is now 17 months since Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was allowed to return home to a hero's reception.

Yesterday, Mr Straw's office declined to comment on the claims. He is quoted by Vanity Fair saying his conversations with Mr Salmond were "private".

Megrahi, who has advanced prostate cancer, was allowed to return home in August 2009 after Dr Andrew Fraser, the director of health at the Scottish Prison Service, declared that a three-month prognosis was a "reasonable estimate" to make.

Mr Straw's communications with Mr Salmond over the Prisoner Transfer Agreement took place in late 2007 and early 2008. He first agreed to exclude Megrahi from a PTA deal with Libya, only to reinstate him following pressure from the Libyans.

The agreement between the Scottish and UK governments on a one-year bar on slopping-out claims was announced in March 2009. Under the arrangement, the UK government agreed to push through legislation at Westminster.

Asked about the claims yesterday, Mr Salmond described it as a "daft suggestion", noting that the Scottish Government had consistency shown "trenchant opposition" to the prisoner transfer agreement".