British government says Megrahi release a ‘mistake’

LONDON - The Scottish government is embroiled in a controversy over its decision last year to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, on compassionate grounds, with some American senators alleging that lobbying by oil giant BP had played a part in the release and the British government saying the release was a “mistake”.

Britain’s ambassador to the US, Sir Nigel Sheinwald issued a statement Thursday night saying that the new coalition government regards the release of the man convicted of the bombing of the Pan-Am aircraft on its way to New York from London in December 1988 was a “mistake”.

The Scottish government denied the allegations of the American senators: “He was sent home to die according to the due process of Scots law, based on the medical report of the Scottish Prison Service Director of Health and Care, and the recommendations of the Parole Board and Prison Governor - all of which have been published by the Scottish Government.”

Sheinwald’s statement came following the American government’s decision to look into the claims by a group of Democrat senators that the oil giant, BP, had lobbied the British government to release Megrahi so that it could secure an oil deal with Libya.

In August 2009, the Scottish government decided to release Megrahi, suffering from cancer, following medical opinion that he hardly had three months to live.

However, closer to the first anniversary of his release, family members of the Loberbie victims claimed in June that the medical opinion, given by professor Karol Sikora, medical director of CancerPartners UK, was “influenced” to secure Megrahi’s early release.

There were also reports which quoted professor Sikora as saying this June that Megrahi could even live for a decade.

He now says his words were taken out of context: “There was a greater than 50 per cent chance, in my opinion, that he would die within the first three months then gradually as you go along the chances get less and less. So the chances of living 10 years is less than one per cent, something like that.”

At the time of Megrahi’s release the then prime minister Gordon Brown said he was not responsible for what happened, but that he “respected” the right of the Scottish government to take the decision. That was construed by the British media to mean an endorsement of Megrahi’s early release. But Thursday’s statement by Sheinwald means that the coalition government takes a different view.

His statement, quoted in The Guardian, read: “Under UK law, where Scottish justice issues are devolved to Scotland, it fell solely to the Scottish executive to consider Megrahi’s case. Under Scottish law, Megrahi was entitled to be considered for release on compassionate grounds.

“Whilst we disagreed with the decision to release Megrahi, we have to respect the independence of the process. The inquiry by the justice committee of the Scottish parliament concluded in February that the Scottish executive took this decision in good faith, on the basis of the medical evidence available to them at the time, and due process was followed.”

BP, meanwhile, admitted that it had pressed the government over the signing of a prisoner transfer agreement with the Gaddafi regime in Libya, but insisted it had made no representations about Megrahi’s actual release by the Scottish government.