US senators demand bomber return to jail

A group of US senators demanded the Lockerbie bomber be returned to jail as they branded the process which led to his release “incredibly flawed”.

The American politicians claimed the freeing of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi on compassionate grounds was based on an “inaccurate prognosis” that the Libyan, who has prostate cancer, had just three months to live.

They said the UK government played a “direct, critical role” in the decision to free him in August last year, stating that “evidence suggests that UK officials pressured Scotland to facilitate Mr al Megrahi’s release”.

And they said the SNP administration may also have been influenced by the “opportunity to act independently on the world stage” when Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill decided to grant Mr al Megrahi his freedom.

The four senators – Robert Menendez, Frank Lautenberg, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand – investigated the Libyan’s release.

The majority of the 270 people who lost their lives when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on December 21 1988 were Americans.

Mr Megrahi, who remains the only man ever convicted of the bombing, remains alive in Tripoli 16 months after being released from jail on compassionate grounds.

A Scottish government spokesman said the senators’ report was a “false interpretation” of events.

He stressed that “due process” had been followed in every aspect of the Megrahi case.

The spokesman said: “This is not an official report of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – it is an incorrect and inaccurate rehash by four senators of material that has been in the public domain for many months, and we entirely reject their false interpretation.”

The senators’ report – Justice Undone, The Release Of The Lockerbie Bomber – was published on the 22nd anniversary of the atrocity.

Senator Menendez had invited a number of senior politicians and other figures to give evidence to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Mr Megrahi’s release.

Mr MacAskill, Scottish Prison Service director of health Andrew Fraser, former UK justice secretary Jack Straw and former BP chief executive officer Tony Hayward were among those who refused to go to the US.

However, a delegation was sent from America to the UK to interview officials from the Westminster and Scottish governments.

In their report the senators claimed the three-month prognosis given to Mr Megrahi was “inaccurate and unsupported by medical science”.

But they also claimed: “Perhaps worse, the process leading to Mr Megrahi’s three-month prognosis was so deeply flawed at every level that it suggests that getting the correct prognosis was not the ultimate goal.”

They said the Scottish government had hired prostate cancer and urology experts to advise them on the bomber’s condition but added: “These specialists would not agree that a three-month prognosis was applicable and the Scottish government promptly ignored those expert opinions.

“Instead, the government relied on the opinion of two doctors within the Scottish prison system –doctors without the necessary medical training or experience with prostate cancer to provide an accurate prognosis and doctors who were in a position to be influenced by the political arguments for al-Megrahi’s release.”

They questioned whether Scottish ministers had “intentionally skewed the process in order to reach a flawed conclusion”.

The report cited the fact that Mr Megrahi was still alive 16 months after being released as making it “obvious, even to laymen, that the prognosis was incorrect”.