Salmond calls for release of Lockerbie files

Vindication: Files could clear MacAskill© STV

First Minister Alex Salmond has called on the American government to give him permission to publish all of the official documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Mr Salmond said Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who released Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds in August 2009, acted with integrity throughout and will be vindicated, if corresepondence about the case is made public.

It has been reported that the US Government wrote to Scottish officials indicating that to release the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds would be "far preferable" to al-Megrahi being transferred to a Libyan jail to serve out his remaining sentence.

Mr Salmond said: "I think a fair description of the American Government's position is that they didn't want al-Megrahi to be released. However, if he was to be released, they thought it was far preferable for compassionate release as opposed to the prisoner transfer agreement."

Al-Megrahi is the only man to have been convicted of bombing of Pan Am flight 103 on December 21, 1988, which killed 270 people.

He was released from Greenock Prison last August, having been given just three months to live. However, 11 months on, he is still alive and living with his family in Tripoli, and the Scottish Government is coming under increasing pressure from critics who say he should never have been freed.

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