Scottish lawmaker defends Lockerbie release

A Scottish government minister said Tuesday that he stood by his decision to free the Lockerbie bomber, hours before the British prime minister blamed him for the "mistake."

Kenny MacAskill, justice secretary in Scotland's devolved government, said he would consider any request by the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee to give evidence at a hearing on the affair later this month.

"I stand by the decision I made," MacAskill said in an interview with BBC television. "I reflected and followed the rules and laws of Scotland. I upheld the values and the beliefs that we seek to live by as the people of Scotland."

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, convicted in 2001 of blowing up a Pan Am flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 and killing 270 people, was freed from prison by the Scottish government in 2009 on compassionate grounds.

He had been given three months to live due to prostate cancer but is still alive in Libya. A doctor who examined him was recently quoted as saying he could live for another 10 years.

MacAskill also stressed he had no knowledge of any deal done that would have seen prisoners released to smooth the way for lucrative oil deals with the likes of BP.

"These are questions that have to be answered by the British government," MacAskill said. "It was the British government that perhaps did a deal in the desert but that would be for them to state and for the senators to discover."

MacAskill's remarks came just hours before US President Barack Obama met British Prime Minister David Cameron in the White House and discussed the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the release of Al Megrahi.

Cameron defended BP before meeting the US president, but admitted the release of the Lockerbie bomber was a mistake made by MacAskill.

"Of course BP has got to do everything necessary to cap the oil well, to clean up the spill, to pay compensation. I've met with BP. I know they want to do that, and they will do that," Cameron told National Public Radio in Washington.

"But ... let's be clear about who released Al Megrahi; it was a government decision in the UK. It was the wrong decision. It wasn't the decision of BP. It was the decision of Scottish ministers," he added.

Agencies