US senators claim Scotland pressured to release Megrahi

Published on Tuesday 21 December 2010 18:06

THE freeing of the Lockerbie bomber has been described as "incredibly flawed" by a US report that claimed his release was based on inaccurate medical evidence and political pressure.

Allegations that the Scottish Government used compassionate release as a "political cover" for returning Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to Libya were made in the controversial report written by four US senators.

The document claimed that Scottish ministers had "ample motivation" to release Megrahi, including the threat of "commercial warfare" by Libya.

The publication last night led to the Scottish Government releasing a lengthy statement saying they rejected the conclusions of a report that was an "incorrect and inaccurate rehash" of existing material.

The report was commissioned by Robert Menendez, Frank Lautenberg, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, four of the most vocal critics of justice secretary Kenny MacAskill's decision to free the man convicted of killing 270 people.

The senators' report argued that political pressure was exerted on Scotland by the UK, Libya and Qatar, the oil-rich state that also wanted Megrahi freed.

The document claimed that there were significant financial arrangements between Qatari and Scottish entities, including a contract for the Scottish engineering company the Orion Group to supply 1,000 workers to the $10 billion Shell Pearl gas development in Qatar.

"Additionally recent rumours have emerged that the Qatar Investment Authority is attempting a complete takeover of the Scottish (sic] food producer Sainsburys worth 9.8bn," the document said.

The report said Alex Salmond had explored taking loans from Qatar worth 3bn-4bn for infrastructure projects. "While these loans have yet to become a reality, it shows that the Scottish Government had reason to heed Qatar's call for Megrahi's release," it claimed.

The report also argued that freeing Megrahi allowed Scotland to "demonstrate its political independence on the world stage". Despite this, the senators argued that the UK government played a "direct critical role" in the release at a time when BP was negotiating a $900 million oil exploration deal in Libya. Keeping Megrahi in prison threatened this agreement, the report said.Mr MacAskill released Megrahi 16 months ago on the basis that he had less than three months to live.

The report called for Megrahi to be returned to jail and added: "The three months prognosis given to Megrahi by Scottish doctors was inaccurate and is not supported by medical science."

A Scottish Government spokesman said the due process of Scots law had been followed and added: "This is not an official report of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - it is an incorrect and inaccurate rehash by four senators of material that has been in the public domain for many months, and we entirely reject their false interpretation."