Salmond answers Megrahi criticism
By politics.co.uk staff
Alex Salmond has sought to shift attention back to the British government in a letter to US senators probing the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
The Scottish first minister’s government has attracted huge criticism in the US over allegations that energy firm BP intervened to help secure an oil deal with Libya.
In a letter to senators on the US Senate’s foreign relations committee Mr Salmond told chairman John Kerry that BP had already admitted seeking to conclude a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) with the Libyan government.
“I can say unequivocally that the Scottish government has never, at any point, received any representations from BP in relation to Al-Megrahi,” he said.
“That is to say we had no submissions or lobbying of any kind from BP, either oral or written, and, to my knowledge, the subject of Al-Megrahi was never raised by any BP representative to any Scottish government minister.”
It was Megrahi’s decision to abandon his personal pursuit of a PTA which led the way for Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill to announce his release on compassionate grounds in August 2009.
Mr MacAskill said Megrahi was terminally ill and had three months to live, but the Lockerbie bomber has not yet died.
Mr Salmond directed the senators towards London rather than Edinburgh, saying negotiations on the PTA were managed by the Foreign Office. The Scottish government, he insisted, had always opposed a PTA.
“If your committee is concerned about BP’s role or the PTA then it is BP and the previous UK administration that should be the focus of your enquiries,” Mr Salmond added.
“There is nothing the Scottish government can add to this since we have had no contact with BP at any point in the process of considering Megrahi’s position.”
Megrahi is the only man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Britain’s worst ever terrorist atrocity in which 270 people died.
