Pressure group calls on Scottish Government to hold Lockerbie inquiry

Scotland's First Minister today rejected an invitation to support a pressure group demanding an inquiry into the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber.

The Justice for Megrahi Committee invited Alex Salmond to add his name to its campaign for an international inquiry.

It also invited the Scottish Government to hold an inquiry should a bid for an international inquiry fail.

Signatories to the call for an inquiry include the journalist Kate Adie, writer AL Kennedy and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop.

The pressure group believes a bid for an international inquiry is doomed to failure.

Spokesman Robert Forrester said only the United Nations (UN) Security Council has the power to subpoena witnesses but it has ceased to deal with the Lockerbie affair.

He said the obvious alternative is for Mr Salmond's Nationalist Government to hold an inquiry.

The pressure group wants an inquiry into the downing of Pan Am flight 103, the police investigation, the trial at Camp Zeist, the conviction and the dropping of the appeal.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi is the only person ever convicted of the terror attack which killed 270 people in 1988.

He was given a life sentence but served less than 10 years before being controversially released on compassionate grounds last year by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "On the broader questions of inquiry, the Scottish Government do not doubt the safety of the conviction of Al-Megrahi. Nevertheless, there remain concerns to some on the wider issues of the Lockerbie atrocity.

"The questions to be asked and answered in any such inquiry would be beyond the jurisdiction of Scots law and the remit of the Scottish Government, and such an inquiry would therefore need to be initiated by those with the required power and authority to deal with an issue international in its nature.

"As was indicated last year, the Scottish Government would be happy to co-operate fully with such an inquiry.

"It would obviously not be appropriate for any minister to become a member of such a campaign, given that ministers are required to look at things on a quasi-judicial basis."

Mr Forrester said: "I'm very disappointed that the First Minister hasn't taken this up. However, I will seek clarification from him that he is, in fact, going to be pro-active in putting this before the UN."