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Lockerbie decision 'shame' to Scotland

By Channel 4 News

Updated on 23 August 2009

Scotland's first minister insists it was the right decision to release the Lockerbie bomber amid mounting criticism on both sides of the Atlantic.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi (credit:Reuters)

Three days after the decision the moral outrage is growing. Labour's former first minister, Jack McConnell, said Abdel Basset al-Megrahi's compassionate release brought "shame" on Scotland. Senior American senators across the political spectrum have also join the FBI director in voicing their anger.

Three US Senators and America's top military official said they were appalled by what they called an obviously political move.

But Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, said the decision to free Megrahi had been taken strictly according to Scottish law.

Mr McConnell stepped up the criticism at home by saying the decision to release Megrahi was a "grave error of judgment" that has "damaged the reputation of Scotland, has damaged our justice system and has brought shame on our country".

But Mr Salmond told BBC Radio 4: "No one I think seriously believes we made any other decision except for the right reasons.

"I think it was the right decision. I also absolutely know it was for the right reasons."

Deputy first minister in the Scottish parliament, Nicola Sturgeon, reiterated to Channel 4 News that: "It was a decision that I believe was the right decision, but even more importantly it's a decision that I know was taken for the right reasons and absolutely in accordance with due process." Megrahi, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, was freed by Mr MacAskill after he served eight years of a life sentence for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which killed 270 people. He returned home to Libya to jubilant scenes that included people waving Scottish flags.

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