The spat between the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government over the possibility of Abdel Baset Megrahi benefiting from the prisoner transfer agreement concluded recently between the UK and Libya rumbles on. The BBC News website published a story on Saturday, 2 February about assurances being sought by Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, that the UK Government had not drafted a transfer agreement that could cover Megrahi. The article reads in part:
‘Scotland's first minister has asked for assurances that the Lockerbie bomber will be excluded from any prisoner transfer deal with Libya.
‘Alex Salmond raised concerns that the Westminster government's position on the issue had changed.
‘It was reported that the UK Government drafted a transfer agreement that could cover Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
‘But UK ministers have repeated that no transfer could go ahead without the agreement of the Scottish Government.
‘Mr Salmond spoke out on the issue after the Financial Times reported that Libya had just ratified a £450m contract with oil giant BP, after Westminster ministers drafted a prisoner transfer agreement that it claimed could cover al-Megrahi.’
For the full text, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7224194.stm
The truth of the matter is this. The UK Foreign Office (and officials in the office of the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair) entered into negotiations with Libya for a reciprocal prisoner transfer agreement. Both sides were perfectly well aware that the only Libyan prisoner in a British jail about whom the Libyans had the slightest concern was Megrahi. The Libyan negotiators believed, rightly believed, and were known by the UK negotiators to believe that the agreement they were drafting would cover Megrahi. The London Government did not have the courtesy to inform the Scottish Government (which is responsible for prisons and prisoners in Scotland) that these negotiations were taking place. When the Scottish Government found out about them and complained to the UK Government, the latter announced that (a) the proposed agreement was not intended to cover Megrahi and (b) even if it were, the final decision on the transfer of any Libyan prisoner in a Scottish jail would rest with the Scottish Government. The latter proposition was and is correct. The former was not: it was at best disingenuous and at worst (and probably more accurately) an outright lie.
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