Megrahi wore body armour under shell suit to thwart assassination

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 21:59

THE white shell suit worn by the Lockerbie bomber as he was freed from prison was chosen to hide the protective body armour he had on underneath.

Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill revealed yesterday it was one of a raft of security measures taken to protect Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi as he was transferred from Greenock jail to a jet waiting to take him back to Libya after his 20 August release.

Mr MacAskill, who was facing questions from the Scottish Parliament's justice committee on his handling of the release, also disclosed that the vehicle used to transport terminally-ill Megrahi to Glasgow airport had been bombproof, and that officers guarding him during his transfer had been forced to wear protective gear.

"The release from Greenock prison resulted in the Scottish Prison Service requiring to acquire a vehicle, I think, that was bombproof to avoid roadside devices," he said. "It required the Reliance officers receiving enhanced danger pay. It required Mr al-Megrahi dressed in a shell suit because he was hiding the body armour that he was wearing."

MSPs asked the justice secretary what consideration had been given to housing Megrahi in his family home in Newton Mearns, Glasgow, or to releasing him into a hospital or hospice instead of sending him back to Libya.

Mr MacAskill said the advice received from Strathclyde Police was that 48 officers would have been needed to guard the bomber in the residential suburb, where there would have been restricted access in the roads surrounding the house.

"It did not seem to me appropriate that 48 officers should be required for one house; that additional vehicles would have been required to be brought in to protect him from an attack; that police officers, Reliance officers, SPS (Scottish Prison Service] staff and doubtless medical staff would have to consider wearing body armour," he said.

There were also warnings that police would have faced a regular challenge in taking Megrahi to hospital for treatment, and the minister insisted it would have been "inappropriate and downright disrespectful" to have interrupted the care of others by imposing armed guards and a "media circus" in hospitals.

During two hours of questioning, Mr MacAskill defended his conduct in the run-up to the release of Megrahi, who served eight years of a 27-year sentence for the murder of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988.

Flanked by senior civil servants, he described the decision as "the hardest that I or any other minister has probably had to take in the annals of the brief duration of the Scottish Parliament", adding: "My life has changed significantly as a consequence of this."

He insisted no pressure had been put on Megrahi to drop his appeal and described the medical evidence showing how gravely ill he was with prostate cancer as being "quite clear".

Mr MacAskill also said he had chosen to go to Greenock jail to meet Megrahi because he was worried about his lawyers seeking a judicial review. Because he had met the relatives and Crown Office officials in person, he had to afford the same "courtesy" to Megrahi to avoid being challenged in court.

But committee convener Bill Aitken said: "I don't see that there should've been this level of parity between the biggest mass murderer that Scotland has ever seen and those who were victims."

Later, Labour MSP James Kelly, who sits on the justice committee, was criticised for failing to declare his links to Megrahi's lawyer. The SNP said Mr Kelly should have officially notified the committee that he was the brother of Tony Kelly, a claim the Labour MSP described as "frankly ludicrous" as the relationship was "well known".