Anger over Lockerbie bomber release still strong (Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Aug 18, 2010, 3:06 GMT

London - A year after Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was released from jail in Scotland 'to die' in his native Libya, authorities in Britain are under pressure to explain the full background to their decision.

The Libyan, who according to the Scottish authorities was given an estimated three months to live when he was freed on August 20, 2009, is still alive, staying at his family home near Tripoli, where he is reported to be undergoing chemotherapy.

The debate sparked by his longer than expected survival after a 2008 prostate cancer diagnosis may appear unseemly to some. But in the case of al-Megrahi, critics see it as proof of their suspicion that his compassionate release was not ordered on medical grounds alone.

Richard Dalton, Britain's former ambassador to Libya, said the discussion about al-Megrahi's survival was 'moral, but distasteful.'

However, there were understable reasons for it to continue. 'The three-month estimate turns out to have been incorrect, the bombing was horrific and the process of obtaining justice controversial,' Dalton told the German Press Agency, dpa.

Al-Megrahi, a 58-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent, has always denied that he was the man responsible for blowing up PanAm flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December, 1988, in which 270 people died - 189 of them US citizens.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the atrocity after a lengthy and complex trial in 2001, having served just eight years when he was freed - and given a hero's welcome in Libya.

The anger of US relatives of the victims has been rekindled in the context of the recent fury over the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. US senators have asked renewed questions of a link between British oil interests in Libya and al-Megrahi's release.

In Scotland, the authorities have come under pressure to publish the full medical records on which Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill based his decision to free the prisoner on compassionate grounds.

It has emerged that the four specialists who were allegedly consulted by the Scottish prison service doctor who made the three- month prognosis have all refused to say whether the estimate was 'reasonable.'

One of the experts, al-Megrahi's urologist Zak Latif, revealed to the British press that he had, in fact, never been consulted.

'I was surprised when I heard he was being released, because I wasn't really asked for my opinion ... it's a bit odd,' Latif told the Sunday Times on August 15.

Professor Karol Sikora, a leading British oncologist employed by Libya to examine al-Megrahi, said recently he did not believe he had been fooled.

'Everything pointed towards the fact that he (al-Megrahi) had end- stage disease,' Sikora told the BBC.

But he admitted that he was 'surprised' that al-Megrahi was still alive and said he should have been more cautious in predicting that the prisoner only had three months to live.

Tension over the al-Megrahi case increased last month when Scottish ministers rejected calls to appear before a US Senate inquiry into al-Megrahi's release.

Links have been alleged between the release and a 900 million- dollar oil and gas exploration deal signed between Libya and BP in 2007 - the same year Britain and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding on a prisoner transfer agreement.

Britain's new Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, who has condemned as 'completely wrong' the Scottish government's decision to free al-Megrahi, has ruled out US demands for a new inquiry.

'I don't think there is any great mystery here. It was a bad decision,' Cameron said during a recent visit to the US.

Dalton, meanwhile, insisted there was 'no link' between the release and BP's business interests. He said demands for a publication of the medial notes should be rejected.

'Seeing the medical notes will reveal nothing except the content of the medical notes. The Scottish authorities are not accountable to a foreign assembly,' said the ex-ambassador.

While the political circumstances, and the possible business interest linked to the al-Megrahi case are likely to remain murky, Scottish anger at the continued US criticism grows.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, accused the US of a 'vengeful' attitude towards the Lockerbie bomber. The dispute, said O'Brien, had its roots in a 'clash of cultures.'

'In Scotland, over many years we have cultivated through our justice system what I hope can be described as a 'culture of compassion',' said the church leader.

'On the other hand, there still exists in very many parts of the US, if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice which can only be described as a 'culture of vengeance'.'