The Scottish politician who made the hotly disputed decision to free the Lockerbie bomber a year ago due to his terminal cancer defended the move today, saying: "It was a decision I had to make."
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill released Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds on August 20, 2009, saying he was seriously ill with prostate cancer and probably only had three months to live.
But Megrahi is still alive in his homeland of Libya, prompting fury among the mainly American relatives of the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988.
"It was a decision I didn't choose to make, it was a decision I had to make. It was my responsibility and accordingly I followed the rules and laws of Scotland," MacAskill told reporters.
"I acted appropriately and I stand by the decision."
He added that while Megrahi had lived beyond the three-month prognosis, it was "undeniable" and "irrefutable" that he was terminally ill.
Asked by the BBC whether Megrahi would have been released if it had been known he would still be alive a year later, MacAskill said: "Well, he wouldn't have met the criteria and accordingly the decision would not have been made."
A close relation of Megrahi, who now lives in a closely-guarded villa in a smart district of Tripoli, has told AFP that his health is "stable", adding: "He only leaves to go to the hospital or to pay a visit to his mother."
Scotland's decision to release Megrahi after eight years of a minimum 20-year sentence has been criticised by US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
The US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee wants to hold a hearing into the affair in the coming weeks.
It will examine whether oil giant BP -- already facing intense pressure in the US over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill -- played a part in securing Megrahi's release in a bid to safeguard a 900-million-dollar (700-million-euro) exploration deal with Libya.
Officials in Britain deny this and the Scottish government has declined to send ministers to Washington to appear before the hearing.
MacAskill stressed in his latest comments that he would be prepared to meet individual senators who have voiced criticism over his handling of the case, but only in Scotland.
"If US senators come across and they seek a meeting with me, I'll be more than happy to try and provide it... the door is always open," he said.
Scotland's devolved centre-left government, led by First Minister Alex Salmond and based in Edinburgh, has responsibility for justice issues in Scotland under Britain's constitutional arrangements.
In separate comments today, one of the four doctors involved in talks about Megrahi's health in the weeks before his release insisted that advice given to officials was a "fair reflection" of his condition at the time.
But Dr Grahame Howard stressed that the final assessment of Megrahi's prognosis was made by the Scottish Prison Service's director of health and care, Andrew Fraser.
"The background medical portion of that application is a fair reflection of the specialist advice available at the time," Howard said in a statement.