Salmond and MacAskill to be quizzed by MPs on Megrahi release

Published on Monday 21 December 2009 21:46

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond is to be quizzed by Westminster MPs next month.

The case of the Lockerbie bomber will loom large when he appears before the Commons Scottish affairs committee.

It is looking at co-operation and communication between the Scottish and Westminster governments – and in particular how this worked in the case of the Lockerbie bomber. Giving evidence alongside Mr Salmond on 10 January will be Sir John Elvidge, the Scottish Government's most senior civil servant.

Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, who turned down an application for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, below, to be transferred to a Libyan prison but granted a plea for compassionate early release on health grounds, will be questioned by the committee after Mr Salmond.

MPs are looking at the arrangements for assessing the effect of UK foreign policy on Scottish interests, and vice versa. It is studying how these arrangements functioned during negotiations with Libya that led to a prisoner transfer agreement.