MacAskill to show mercy to Megrahi

The justice secretary has made his decision and will announce it to the world at a 1pm press conference.

Last night, preparations were under way for the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi from Greenock jail – a decision that will infuriate American relatives of the Lockerbie victims and many United States politicians who are convinced the Libyan is guilty of the worst mass-murder in British legal history.

Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of killing the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988. The 57-year-old is now suffering from terminal prostate cancer and is said to have only a few weeks to live.

Read Robert Black's analysis of this story here

The expected decision to grant him a compassionate release was made despite a fresh call from US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to keep him locked up.

She said it was "absolutely wrong" to free Megrahi, adding: "We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so and we hope that they will not.

Read about the US reaction here

Mr MacAskill has also received a letter from seven US senators, urging him not to allow Megrahi to go back to Libya, and graphic letters from American relatives of some of the victims describing the grief they have suffered over the years.

Earlier this week, Megrahi's defence team formally dropped his appeal against his conviction.

This was seen by many as a deeply unsatisfactory end to two decades of investigation and legal proceedings. It means the safety of Megrahi's conviction is unlikely to be tested in court – leaving the way clear for the various conspiracy theories that have long existed about the case to continue.

There has been widespread speculation that Mr MacAskill would go down the route of granting the Libyan compassionate release.

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Rumours that Megrahi was to be released intensified yesterday, after news that a police exercise involving motorcycle outriders and a vehicle with blacked-out windows had been undertaken on Tuesday night between Greenock and Prestwick airport.

The convoy was sighted simulating the necessary road and junction closures along the M77 from Glasgow; it was thought to be a rehearsal in preparation for taking Megrahi to catch a flight to Libya.

Mr MacAskill's likely decision means Megrahi could be on his way home as early as today – in time for Ramadan, which begins tomorrow.

The release of Megrahi will delight campaigners who have long believed in the Libyan's innocence. Politicians including Tam Dalyell, the former Labour MP, and Christine Grahame, the South of Scotland SNP MSP, have been long-term campaigners for his freedom.

Those who doubt his guilt say the evidence presented at his trial before three Scottish judges in the Netherlands was not strong enough to convict him.

His release will also please Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Last night a Scottish Government spokesman confirmed Mr MacAskill had made his decision. He said: "Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill has informed families and other interested parties that he has reached his decisions on the applications for prisoner transfer and compassionate release in relation to Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, and will announce his decisions (today]."

Our agony: Last-ditch bid by families to stop release

THE American relatives of the Lockerbie victims made a last emotive plea to Scotland's justice secretary for the bomber to be kept behind bars, The Scotsman can reveal.

In a final attempt to persuade Kenny MacAskill that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi should stay in jail, the families sent deeply personal accounts of the two decades of grief they had suffered since the atrocity.

The relatives wrote letters to Mr MacAskill condemning suggestions that Megrahi is to be allowed home to Libya just eight and a half years after he was convicted of the biggest mass murder in British legal history.

Their moving testimonies arrived on the justice secretary's desk yesterday and followed the pressure from American politicians, who are demanding that Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, should spend what remains of his life in jail.

The relatives said they had faith in the Scottish legal system that convicted Megrahi and pointed to assurances given by both Britain and America that the former Libyan intelligence agent would serve out his life sentence in Scotland.

Mary Kay Stratis, who was widowed after Elia Stratis died in the bombing in December 1988, told MacAskill how her husband was unable to share the formative years of their three children, who were seven, ten and 13 when he was murdered.

He did not live to see their weddings, she said, and missed out on "holding his grandchildren".

1616hrs: In pictures - Megrahi's release from prison. Click here to view

Mrs Stratis added that sanctioning the release of Megrahi on compassionate grounds or under the Prisoner Transfer Agreement signed by Tony Blair and the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi defied "any sense of justice".

Brian Flynn, brother of victim John Flynn, said Col Gaddafi sent Megrahi to bomb the flight. He asked: "How can you even consider granting the request of the author of the crime to release the perpetrator?"

Mary Lou Ciulla, who lost her husband Frank, said: "Mr Megrahi has been convicted of this horrible crime and must serve his sentence. To release him now, to give him his last days of life with his family and friends, is something we cannot condone. My husband did not get that privilege. How can we grant it to his murderer?"

Dorothy Coker, the stepmother of Jason and Eric Coker, who died, said: "Megrahi took all the wonders that life has in store from our sons, young men of 20 still unfulfilled in all that had yet to come.

"The loss we family members have felt in not having them in our lives cannot be calculated and continues each and every day.

"We feel strongly that consideration not be given to Mr Megrahi in his appeal to be sent to Libya to complete his incarceration. The idea of allowing such a thing is an outrage to us, to our children, and to all the families.

"In 20 years he has not owned up to what he did, has never expressed any remorse for killing so many nor expressed any concern for the loss dealt to all these families. To have participated in such a horrendous and outrageous act does not warrant consideration in any such request."

The letters, seen by The Scotsman, give a graphic illustration of the strength of feeling that the case has aroused in America and give an indication of the opprobrium that will be heaped on Scottish ministers who have now decided that Megrahi should go home.

The letters were compiled at Syracuse University, which lost 35 students in the disaster. They were based on their contributions to a video-conference held involving Mr MacAskill and US relatives in July.

The relatives put their feelings down on paper because their discussions with Mr MacAskill were not recorded. The letters were sent to Mr MacAskill as he made up his mind.

Frank Duggan, a Washington lawyer and President of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said: "We could see him on the screen, but he was far enough away so that we could not see his facial expression.

"There were a lot of tears and he couldn't have failed to have been as moved as we were. This was the first time that we had the chance to speak about this."