Megrahi's role

In HIS lead letter under the heading "Megrahi was no innocent bystander" Robert Durwood writes accusingly: "What is known is that al-Megrahi was a Libyan secret service agent who spent a lot of time overseas and who had access to bank accounts stuffed with cash. Perhaps he was buying fine art for Mr Gaddafi. We may never know but the inference that he was an innocent bystander is not credible."

Yes. But Mr Megrahi, in Barlinnie jail, told me that he was a buyer (ie sanctions buster) for spare parts for Libyan Arab Airlines and the Libyan oil industry, including material for Brown and Root, and scoured Europe and Africa to find equipment forbidden to Libya by American-inspired sanctions. I believed him.

The activities of a sanction buster are totally different from those of a mass murderer.

TAM DALYELL

House of the Binns

Linlithgow