British government 'aided bomber release'
Britain's former Labour government did “all it could” to help Libya secure the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Britain’s top civil servant said today.
Sir Gus O’Donnell concluded that a policy was progressively developed to facilitate the Libyans in their appeal to the Scottish government to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.
Prime Minister David Cameron ordered Sir Gus to carry out a review of the papers following his visit to the United States last year.
In his report, Sir Gus said: “Policy was, therefore, progressively developed that HMG should do all it could, while respecting devolved competencies, to facilitate an appeal by the Libyans to the Scottish government for Mr Megrahi’s transfer under the PTA (Prisoner Transfer Agreement) or for release on compassionate grounds.”
Sir Gus said that he had not seen any evidence that the UK government ``pressured or lobbied'' the Scottish government for Megrahi's release.
He said that the paperwork showed that at all times the government had been clear that any decision to release Megrahi or transfer him to Libya was a matter for the Scottish government alone.
In his only meeting with the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in July 2009 - a month before Megrahi’s return to Tripoli – then prime minister Gordon Brown had made clear that he could not interfere.
“Nonetheless, once Mr Megrahi had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in September 20008, HMG policy was based upon an assessment that UK interests would be damaged if Mr Megrahi were to die in a UK jail,” Sir Gus said.
“The development of this view was prompted, following Mr Megrahi’s diagnosis of terminal illness, by the extremely high priority attached to Mr Megrahi’s return by the Libyans, who had made clear that they would regard his death in Scottish custody as a death sentence and by actual and implicit threats made of severe ramifications for UK interests if Mr Megrahi were to die in prison in Scotland.”
