Scotland's justice secretary has defended his decision to release the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing - describing it as "probably the hardest decision that I've ever had to make".
It is a year to the day since Abdelbaset al Megrahi was released from Greenock Prison. He is terminally ill with prostate cancer and, at the time, was given just three months to live.
In an interview with STV News, Kenny MacAskill said the decision was one he had to take based on the information he was given.
He said: It's probably the hardest decision that I've ever had to make. But it was my responsibility. I'm privileged to hold this post, I'm proud to be the justice secretary for Scotland, I didn't seek to shirk my responsibility.
"I knew it was a decision that wouldn't please everybody. There's no way that I could square the circle. But a decision had to be made and it had to be made by me. I believe it was the right decision, for the right reasons. That's supported by the people of Scotland, who do believe that the decision should be made by Scotland, by their justice secretary, and on our grounds.
"It was a decision I took without consideration of political, economic or diplomatic matters."
Megrahi was jailed after being convicted of the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, in which 270 people died.
It was thought that Megrahi would live only a matter of months after his release. The release has attracted harsh criticism from the US, where most of the victims were from.
STV will be releasing the results of an exclusive poll into Scots' views on the release on Friday.
On Thursday evening, the UK Government tonight warned Libya not to celebrate the anniversary of Megrahi's release. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said any celebration would be "tasteless, offensive and deeply insensitive".
Inquiry call
US senators have asked Scottish ministers to take part in their own inquiry into claims that the release was linked to lucrative oil contracts.
Earlier this week, a cancer specialist admitted that advances in treatment for prostate cancer meant Megrahi could stay alive for years.
Professor Roger Kirby, a consultant urologist at St George's Hospital in London, said: "We know that patients can survive 18, 24, 36 months longer as a result of these treatments.
"It may be that newer treatments coming in now will extend that life expectancy even longer, so the longer Mr al Megrahi lives, the more embarrassing it is that he has been released from jail."
Mr MacAskill told relatives of the victims of the bombing that Scotland had done everything it could to ensure justice was done.
"The pain and suffering for the relatives of those devastated by the bomb started on December 21, 1988," he said. "Scotland didn't choose for that bomb to explode above our skies. What we have done is make sure that at least one perpetrator has been brought to account.
"And in Scotland we have a system that says those who perpetrate crimes have to be held to account and justice has to be done.
"Equally, it has to be tempered by mercy and compassion. That's the system I represent as the justice secretary for Scotland, and it's a system I'm proud of. I've followed the rules and I did my job."
The justice secretary said he had considered whether Megrahi should be released into palliative care in Scotland - and denied he decided against that route because of the costs involved.
"We don't put a price limit on justice in Scotland," he said. "The advice was not simply that it would have resulted in a significant police presence - which care home would you want me to put him in? Which individuals who are terminally ill with cancer would you like me to remove? Which individuals who went to see their loved ones in their dying days would want to be moved out to be met not simply by armed police officers, but by a media circus?
"I was not prepared to put Mr al Megrahi into a respite home in Scotland that would have resulted in great disturbance for those who work there, for those who go to see their loved ones, and for those who go to die there. Staying in Scotland was not a matter of cost, it was a matter of not being appropriate for us."
Meanwhile, a pressure group demanding an inquiry into Megrahi's conviction said it had secured the support of a number of high-profile figures including Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, journalist John Pilger, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Professor Noam Chomsky.
Nationalist MSP Christine Grahame and former Labour MP Tam Dalyell had also signed up to the Justice for Megrahi campaign, according to spokesman Robert Forrester.
