Freeing Megrahi 'will cost SNP the election'

• Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill visited Megrahi in jail

Twelve months after Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi flew home to Libya to a hero's welcome, Mr MacAskill said yesterday that his call - a ruling that will define the SNP's first ever period in government - was "not a matter of regrets, it's a matter of responsibility".

He told the watching world last year that, with Megrahi facing a "terminal, final and irrevocable" illness, he should be freed immediately.

However, a year on, and with Megrahi about to embark on a fresh course of treatment, Mr MacAskill faces increasing pressure in both Scotland and the USA over why the decision was taken.

And SNP sources said that, so long as the bomber continued to live in his home in Tripoli, it was an "albatross around our necks" as the party heads to the Scottish elections next May.

Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the mass murder of 259 passengers and crew on board Pam Am Flight 103 from London to New York, and a further 11 people in the town of Lockerbie.

It remains the biggest act of terrorism ever committed in Britain. Relatives of the dead yesterday said they did not plan to mark the anniversary in any special way, with opinion still divided over both the original conviction of Megrahi and his subsequent release.

Megrahi's release last year on "compassionate grounds" was based on medical reports that concluded it was a "reasonable estimate" that he would be dead in three months. The three-month prognosis was crucial, as the time limit is offered as a guide for when compassionate release can be granted.

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Justice Secretary Mr MacAskill admitted yesterday that had he known Megrahi would live for a year he would have kept him in jail. He said: "He wouldn't have met the criteria and, accordingly, the decision would not have been made."

Ministers say Megrahi will die "very soon", but it is understood the bomber is now embarking on a fresh course of chemotherapy, having begun the treatment when he returned to Libya. Mr MacAskill insisted yesterday: "It was the right decision for the right reasons. I said last year probably no harder decision has had to be made than the decision that had to be made by me last year, but it was my responsibility - it would have been a dereliction of my duty to have avoided that and I stand by the decision."

He added: "I knew it was going to divide but there was no way I could broach a consensus - people were either going to agree or disagree. But it was my responsibility to take a decision. I took the decision. I do understand that some people are bitterly opposed to it."Mr MacAskill received support from one of the doctors who examined Megrahi, who described the report which contained the controversial three-month prognosis as a "fair reflection of the specialist advice available".

That estimate was given ?in a medical report written by Dr Andrew Fraser, director of health at the Scottish Prison Service, who told Mr MacAskill that three months was a "reasonable estimate".

In a statement from the Scottish Prison Service, consultant oncologist Dr Grahame Howard said: "As an external adviser I was involved in discussions leading up to the point where Megrahi was considered for release on medical grounds. The background medical portion of that application (written by Dr Fraser) is a fair reflection of the specialist advice available at the time. The final assessment of prognosis was made by Dr Andrew Fraser taking into account the deterioration in his clinical condition."

At the weekend, another of the doctors who examined Megrahi claimed he was "surprised" by his release, and said he had not been asked for an opinion.

US senators who want to investigate the release have now asked First Minister Alex Salmond to make available all the medical records involved in Megrahi's case in an effort to get to the bottom of the affair.

However, SNP ministers are refusing, saying Megrahi has not given them permission to do so.

In a bid to dampen the pressure on the party yesterday, the SNP released a YouGov poll, it had commissioned, that showed that 72 per cent of Scots agree ministers were right not to have attended a US Senate hearing on the case earlier this year. A majority also agreed the decision was rightly made by Scottish ministers and not UK ministers.

However, the SNP did not ask people whether they agreed with the decision to release Megrahi or not.

One SNP source said last night: "This whole issue is an albatross around our necks.

"It's a definite vote loser and it's contributing to the fact we're not going to win the next election. We are left having to defend Kenny.He'll keep his job in parliament but people will lose on the back of him."

John Curtice, professor of politics at Glasgow University, said that the continuing row over Megrahi's life expectancy was damaging because it brought the SNP government's competence into question.

He said: "I guess what will worry them is that the way the decision was made is still being gnawed at, and that questions the competence of the administration.

"The art of government is about being competent and in many ways the SNP won in 2007 because people thought they could do a better job than Labour of running things."

However, an SNP spokeswoman said: "This was not a decision made in electoral terms. This was never about politics. It is the kind of decision you have to make when you get into government. You have to get on and do it."

Mr MacAskill also confirmed yesterday that he will agree to meet the US Senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if they visit Scotland in coming weeks.

At the weekend, it emerged they had issued a call for "whistle blowers" to come forward with further information about the case. Scottish and UK ministers had previously turned down a request to give evidence before the Senate committee on their role in the affair.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray called on Mr MacAskill to make a statement before the Scottish Parliament apologising for the decision.

"How Kenny MacAskill and Alex Salmond cannot see that this decision was completely flawed is beyond me," Mr Gray said.

Murdo Fraser, deputy leader of the Scottish Tories, said: "Compassion is a fundamental Scottish characteristic, but compassion for a mass murderer must be tempered by justice for the victims. The Lockerbie Bomber should not have been returned to Libya and a hero's reception in Tripoli. It was a bad decision, badly made.".