Secretary of State for Scotland rules out foreign trial over Lockerbie

[What follows is the text of a report published in The Herald on this date in 1994:]

Scottish Secretary Ian Lang yesterday rejected a plea by Tory MP Sir

Teddy Taylor for the law to be changed to enable two Libyans suspected

of carrying out the 1988 Lockerbie bombing to be tried abroad.

Sir Teddy (Southend East -- Con) said leading and respected Scottish

advocates had stated clearly and publicly that a fair trial before a

Scottish jury was simply not possible because of recent press coverage.

He added that the Libyan Government had said it willingly would send

the two accused to any other country.

Sir Teddy urged: ''In fairness to the relatives of the victims of this

appalling disaster, it would be better for the Government to consider

legislation, for example for a trial in The Hague, so the truth on this

dreadful issue could at last come forward, rather than the present

situation where nothing is happening for years.''

Mr Lang replied: ''But the investigation took place under Scots law

and the charges are being brought on that basis.''

He insisted there was no evidence to support the contention the Libyan

Government would be any more amenable to holding a trial in any other

country, even if that were possible, ''which would be extremely

difficult in the circumstances''.

Mr Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow -- Lab) claimed the Lord Advocate had not

taken account of all the evidence in the case, and accused the Crown

Office of being ''a bit lazy''.

Mr Lang retorted: ''You persist in setting yourself up as some kind of

amateur sleuth in this matter.''

He pressed Mr Dalyell to support the Lord Advocate and the Government

''in seeking to enable this trial to take place''.

"He cannot have it both ways"

[What follows is excerpted from a report published in today’s edition of The National:

Lockerbie campaigners who believe Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was innocent of the 1988 atrocity have accused former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill of concealing the truth behind the investigation into the bombing.

In a statement, Justice for Megrahi (JfM) said that in his book The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search for Justice, MacAskill had hung out the UK, US and international bodies out to dry for their “hypocrisy” in pursuing their self-interest agenda. But, said JfM: “In reality, it is the Scottish justice system and people like himself and the Crown Office who have facilitated these self-interest agendas by conducting a flawed investigation and trial and by concealing the true facts behind Mr Megrahi’s conviction.”

“Mr MacAskill and the Crown Office stand indicted of frustrating the very search for justice that he proclaims to be pursuing in the title of his book. His refusal to allow a Scottish independent enquiry and his support for the Crown Office, who over the years have attempted to hide the paucity of the prosecution case, only serves to highlight his double standards.”

The group said that time after time, MacAskill and the Scottish Government had stated that the only way justice can be done is through the Scottish courts, yet now he was saying that Scotland was “powerless to interfere in the face of international double dealing”.

“It is clear from the information he now reveals in his book that he holds previously undisclosed evidence which is relevant to JfM’s nine criminal allegations being investigated by Police Scotland. We have reported him to this authority as a vital and compellable witness,” they added.

Professor Robert Black QC said: “MacAskill’s book seeks to paint a very rosy picture of the performance of the Scottish justice system in the Lockerbie case. The investigation, prosecution and trial were apparently all exemplary. In fact, there were grave – and perhaps criminal – flaws in all three.”

Author Dr James Robertson added: “Kenny MacAskill stated repeatedly as Cabinet Secretary for Justice that he did not doubt the safety of the guilty verdict against Megrahi.

“In this book he demolishes key parts of the evidence that secured the verdict, while still maintaining Megrahi was involved. He cannot have it both ways.”

Green MSP John Finnie, his party’s justice spokesperson, said: “Lockerbie was Scotland’s largest mass-murder for which a man, many people believe was innocent of that vile crime, spent long years in prison.

“Citizens, and that includes former cabinet secretaries for justice, are obliged to co-operate in the investigation of crime and I hope that’s exactly what Mr MacAskill will do now there has understandably been a further complaint to Police Scotland.”

[James Robertson appeared last night on BBC Two’s Scotland 2016 talking about Kenny MacAskill’s book. The programme can be viewed here for the next month.]

MacAskill ‘has destroyed the Lockerbie conviction’

[This is the headline over a report by Mike Wade published in today’s edition of The Times. It reads in part:]

The eminent lawyer who designed the Lockerbie trial believes that the former Scottish justice secretary has destroyed the case against the only man found guilty of the atrocity.

Robert Black, QC, said that Kenny MacAskill’s contention in his new book that Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi had not bought the clothes wrapped around the explosive device that destroyed an airliner amounted to “the end of the conviction”.

[Professor Black said that Mr MacAskill] had in effect accepted a key finding of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which in June 2007 found that “no reasonable court could have drawn the inference that [al-Megrahi] was the purchaser”. [RB: See Chapter 21 of the SCCRC’s Statement of Reasons.]

The SCCRC’s position was to form the substance of al-Megrahi’s second appeal. Before his death in 2012 the Libyan said he had dropped the case as part of a deal to allow him to leave jail in Scotland for his home in Tripoli after he had terminal cancer diagnosed.

“As the SCCRC correctly said, if Megrahi was not held to be the purchaser in Malta then there was insufficient evidence in law to convict him,” Professor Black said. [RB: See para 21.100 of the SCCRC’s Statement of Reasons.] “I wonder if Kenny MacAskill realises he is undermining the whole basis of the conviction.”

Professor Black noted that Mr MacAskill’s belief that the “clothes were purchased in Malta, but not by Megrahi” had recently been endorsed by Alex Salmond, the former first minister.

“If that were now the official Scottish government position, that is the end of the conviction,” Professor Black said. In a statement, the Crown Office said it remained certain of al-Megrahi’s guilt.

Professor Black, emeritus professor of law at the University of Edinburgh, intervened after a series of extraordinary interviews by the former justice secretary. Mr MacAskill’s book, The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search For Justice, is published tomorrow. On Monday, Mr MacAskill told Border Television that al-Megrahi’s conviction was probably “unsafe”. Yesterday he reiterated a claim made in the book that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, General Command (PFLP-GC) carried out the attack.

Al-Megrahi was a “small cog”, said Mr MacAskill, in a large scheme: “It involved Libya, it involved Iran, it involved no doubt Syria, involved the Palestinian terrorist organisations, they came together and they carried it out.”

In his book, he claims he was told by “several sources” about a document that implicated the PFLP-GC in the bombing. This week, he suggested that Westminster officials had been ready to “close down” a Scottish newspaper that published an article based on the document. Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people. 

It would take 12 years for al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, his co-accused, to come to trial at the specially convened Scottish court devised by Professor Black at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

Only al-Megrahi was found guilty, to the disbelief of Professor Black. [RB: What astonished me was, of course, that Megrahi was found guilty, not that “only Megrahi” was.] Critics of the verdict focused on the testimony of Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper who said al-Megrahi “resembled” a man who bought clothes in his store. It later emerged that Mr Gauci had been paid $1 million by the US justice department’s Rewards for Justice programme. Professor Black said that according to Mr MacAskill the investigation, prosecution and trial were apparently all exemplary. He added: “In fact, there were grave — and perhaps criminal — flaws in all three.”

Al-Megrahi’s first appeal was rejected in 2002 but five years later the SCCRC found four grounds to refer the case to the High Court. The SCCRC recommendations were passed to the Crown a month after the SNP came to power in May 2007. (...)

Last night the Crown Office said that Mr MacAskill’s suggestion about PFLP-GC involvement in the Lockerbie bombing was fully considered by the trial court “and does nothing to undermine the Crown’s case that Megrahi acted with others in the bombing of flight Pan Am 103”.

A spokesman added: “All material which met the Crown’s disclosure obligations in relation to the PFLP-GC was properly disclosed to the defence before the trial and this was confirmed by the SCCRC’s investigation.” [RB: But lots of other material was not “properly disclosed”. See SCCRC’s Statement of Reasons, Chapters 22, 23, 24(2) and 25.]

[The same newspaper contains an article by Magnus Linklater headlined Lockerbie book raises doubts about MacAskill. It reads in part:]

His newly published book, The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search for Justice, reveals that after al-Megrahi’s release, Mr MacAskill harboured grave doubts about the safety of his conviction, and in particular the identification evidence that led to his life sentence. In the book, he states unequivocally that al-Megrahi was not the man who walked into a Maltese shop and bought the clothes that were later found to have been wrapped around the bomb. “The clothes were acquired in Malta, though not by Megrahi,” he writes. “The identification is suspect.”

Since this was a central part of the prosecution case, it is odd, not to say dumbfounding, that the minister with responsibility for the Scottish prosecution service now says that the case against its prime suspect was flawed.

The theory that Mr MacAskill prefers challenges the conclusions of the department he once ran and the Crown Office he represented. He believes that the bombing was planned by a Palestinian group, the PFLP-GC, led by its founder, Ahmed Jibril, and was later delegated to the Libyans to carry out. What is more, he says that a document held by the UK government would have confirmed this line, but was withheld from the defence.

Warming to his theme in television and radio interviews, Mr MacAskill revealed that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London had tried to prevent The Heraldnewspaper from publishing a Jordanian document implicating the PFLP-GC, on the ground that it might interfere with the British government’s attempts to deport the radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada. Not only that, in order to prevent its publication, the FCO had threatened to suppress an entire edition of the paper — “an action unheard of in my lifetime in Scotland”, as Mr MacAskill put it. (...)

If all this was known to him during his term in office, why was he content to allow the official version of the Lockerbie case to stand unchallenged, and indeed as a member of the Scottish government, to defend the outcome of the Lockerbie trial, when he harboured such grave doubts about it? (...)

Coming from a former justice secretary these theories will, of course, be seized upon gleefully by those who have argued so loud and long that the whole prosecution case was misconceived. Indeed that has already happened, with one member of the pro-al-Megrahi team declaring that Mr MacAskill’s book blows a hole in the prosecution case.

It does nothing of the sort, of course. The PII document and the identification of al-Megrahi by the Maltese shop owner would both have formed part of an appeal, and, if al-Megrahi had not withdrawn from the process, would have been duly tested in court. Few lawyers believe that they would have been enough to overturn the conviction. 

[RB: This is an utterly astonishing assertion by Mr Linklater. Very much closer to the truth is the statement by Ian Hamilton QC: "I don't think there's a lawyer in Scotland who now believes Mr Megrahi was justly convicted.”]

Justice for Megrahi statement on MacAskill book

[What follows is the text of a press release issued today by Justice for Megrahi:]

Kenny MacAskill, The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search for Justice (Biteback Publishing)

In this book Mr MacAskill hangs out the UK, US and international governments to dry for their hypocrisy in pursuing self interest to the detriment of the justice he says the Scottish Justice System has consistently pursued.

In reality it is the Scottish Justice System and people like himself and the Crown Office who have facilitated these self interest agendas by conducting a flawed investigation and trial and by concealing the true facts behind Mr Megrahi’s conviction.

Mr MacAskill and the Crown Office stand indicted of frustrating the very search for justice that he proclaims to be pursuing in the title of his book

His refusal to allow a Scottish independent enquiry and his support for Crown Office, who over the years have attempted to hide the paucity of the prosecution case , only serves to highlight his double standards.

Time after time he and the Scottish Government have stated that the only way justice can be done is in the Scottish Courts and yet he now states that Scotland is powerless to interfere in the face of international double dealing.

It is clear from the information he now reveals in his book that he holds previously undisclosed evidence which is relevant to JfM’s 9 criminal allegations being investigated by Police Scotland. We have reported him to this authority as a vital and compellable witness.

The Scottish Justice system and that system alone has been responsible for perpetuating the myths that Mr MacAskill now reveals and it is only in Scotland that justice can finally be done and be seen to be done. The victims of Lockerbie and the people of Scotland deserve no less.

Professor Robert Black QC states: "MacAskill's book seeks to paint a very rosy picture of the performance of the Scottish justice system in the Lockerbie case. The investigation, prosecution and trial were apparently all exemplary. In fact, there were grave -- and perhaps criminal -- flaws in all three.”

Author Dr James Robertson states: “Kenny MacAskill stated repeatedly as Cabinet Secretary for Justice that he did not doubt the safety of the guilty verdict against Megrahi. In this book he demolishes key parts of the evidence that secured the verdict, while still maintaining Megrahi was involved. He cannot have it both ways. Nor should such a cavalier and shameful approach to the basic principles of justice, from the man who had responsibility for Scottish Justice, be allowed to go unchallenged.”

Kenny MacAskill: "It suited some to pillory me"

[What follows is taken from a report just published on the BBC News website:]

Scotland's former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said it suited both the US and UK to pillory him for releasing the Lockerbie bomber.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was convicted of killing 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown from the skies above southern Scotland in 1988.

After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, he was released by Mr MacAskill in 2009.

The retired SNP MSP spoke to the BBC about the criticism he received. (...)

Mr MacAskill has been recounting his dealings with the Lockerbie case in a book to be published this week called The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search For Justice.

He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that al-Megrahi had played a part in the atrocity which saw 259 people on board killed, along with 11 people on the ground.

However, he said he believed the bomber to be a "foot soldier" and that his conviction might have been viewed as unsafe.

Mr MacAskill's criticisms were levelled at the "state-sponsored terrorism" he claimed had led to the "devastation" of the town of Lockerbie.

He said: "Scottish justice found itself put on trial. I believe all those in Scotland - whether police, prosecution, courts or in the health service - acted diligently and with integrity. But what happened was a world out there, especially countries such as the UK and the USA, acted shamefully.

"It suited them to pillory myself and Scotland at the same time as they were conniving with Colonel Gaddafi, when they had been involved with shoring him up before they tore him down with spectacular consequences for commercial and military interests."

After Mr MacAskill sanctioned the release of al-Megrahi he was heavily criticised by some of the victim's families. (...)

Mr MacAskill also spoke to the BBC's Scotland 2016 programme.

He outlined key questions that needed answering and why the issue was much bigger than the terrorist act itself. His points included:

• what was going on in commercial deals done with Gaddafi?
• what was going on in the security world at the time?
• Scottish courts do not have the power to compel the US Pentagon to give evidence
• and if justice was to be pursued, then it had to be done as an international inquiry and not by a Scottish court

[RB: As regards the last two of these points, here is what I wrote on this blog in October 2010:]

Here are my responses to the pretexts that the Scottish Government have put forward for refusing to set up an independent inquiry:

Reason 1 "The questions to be asked and answered in any such inquiry would be beyond the jurisdiction of Scots law and the remit of the Scottish Government, and such an inquiry would therefore need to be initiated by those with the required power and authority to deal with an issue international in its nature."

Answer This misrepresents what the petition asks the Scottish Government to do.

The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament "to urge the Scottish Government to open an independent inquiry into the 2001 Kamp van Zeist conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988." It does not ask for the establishment of a general inquiry tasked with finding out the truth about the Lockerbie disaster. This would, of course, be beyond the powers of the Scottish Government under the Scotland Act 1998.

The petition asks for an inquiry into the conviction of a person by a Scottish court. This might involve consideration of --

*the police investigation of the tragedy;

*the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the downing of Pan Am 103;

*the conduct of the Crown Office in preparing the prosecution;

*the trial in the Scottish Court in the Netherlands;

*the acquittal of Mr Fhimah and conviction of Mr al-Megrahi;

*the rejection of the first appeal;

*the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's referral of Mr Al-Megrahi's case to the Court of Appeal;

*the dropping of this second appeal;

*the compassionate release of Mr al-Megrahi.

Each and every one of these matters is within "the jurisdiction of Scots law and the remit of the Scottish Government".

Reason 2 "The Scottish Justice Secretary made it clear that under the powers devolved to Holyrood no worthwhile scrutiny could be ordered here because there would be no powers to compel witnesses." (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/macaskill-tells-world-why-he-freed-megrahi-1.982718)

Answer An inquiry constituted under the Inquiries Act 2005 (www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/12/contents) does have power under sections 21, 22 and 28 to compel witnesses and to compel the production of documents and other evidence. Indeed, the relevant powers of such an inquiry are greater than those of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission under sections 194H and 194I of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. Yet, with even its limited powers, the SCCRC was able to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into the Megrahi conviction, involving the interview of many witnesses and the consideration of thousands of documents and other items of evidence, and to reach conclusions based thereon.

‘UK wanted to shut down paper over Lockerbie story’

[This is the headline over a report by Mike Wade in today’s edition of The Times. It reads in part:]

Kenny MacAskill has alleged that the UK government was ready to close down a Scottish newspaper because of an article it published about the Lockerbie bombing.

The former Scottish justice secretary has written a book about the legal case surrounding the atrocity and is said to have based part of his account on material from a classified document held by the UK government.

In his book, Mr MacAskill claims that the document implicates the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, General Command (PFLP-GC) and yesterday he said that he had been told “by several sources” that the document was relevant to the Lockerbie case.

He implied that the same secret material had been the basis of a newspaper article five years ago. [RB: The newspaper in question is The Herald. The article can be read here.]

Mr MacAskill said: “I took calls in 2011 from the UK government seeking to close down a Scottish daily newspaper for running that article.

“They were going to delete an entire edition. I remember saying to the minister that he was off his head if the Scottish people weren’t suddenly going to notice that a major Scottish daily newspaper hadn’t been published that day, and ask questions why.”

Mr MacAskill also admitted that he “does not know” whether he breached the Official Secrets Act in his book.

“What I’ve reported is information that came to my attention,” he told STV. “I don’t know whether that’s the document because I was the Scottish justice secretary. I never saw it. What I believe I refer to was never put before me.”

He added: “This is something that I believe should be out there. This wasn’t put before the Scottish court. Why wasn’t it put before the Scottish court?

“It wasn’t put before the Scottish justice secretary or the Scottish government. It may or it may not be relevant but I think people are entitled to know.”

At the weekend, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office suggested that Mr MacAskill “might” be in breach of the Official Secrets Act in his book, The Lockerbie Bombing, the Search for Justice. Such a transgression could lead to a prison term of up to ten years. (...)

Those campaigning to have Megrahi’s conviction overturned say that the PFLP-GC had a key role in the bombing, which killed all 270 people aboard Pam Am Flight 103 in 1988.

In a book co-written with Megrahi, John Ashton said that the Iranian government hired the organisation to do its “dirty work” in revenge for Iran Air Flight 655, which was shot out of the sky by a US missile in 1988 with the loss of 274 lives.

Willie Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has called for an investigation into the behaviour of the former SNP justice secretary.

“Kenny MacAskill should be investigated by the authorities. His cavalier approach to justice has left many casualties in its wake,” Mr Rennie said. “He should not be profiting from any breach of the Official Secrets Act.”

MacAskill: Why wasn’t document put before Scottish court?

[What follows is excerpted from a report headlined Kenny MacAskill ‘unsure’ if he broke law over Lockerbie book published in today’s edition of The Scotsman:]

Former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill says he “doesn’t know” if he has broken the Official Secrets Act with a book about the Lockerbie bombing.

There are calls for the former SNP minister to be investigated over claims the UK Government holds a classified document implicating a Palestinian militant organisation in the 1988 atrocity.

In a television interview yesterday, Mr MacAskill said he was unaware whether his book contained information that could be illegal. (...)

The document referred to in Mr MacAskill’s book is understood to have been the subject of a legal dispute during Megrahi’s appeal.

Yesterday the former justice secretary claimed the UK Government attempted to “close down” a Scottish daily newspaper for an article published in relation to the atrocity.

Asked if he had broken the Official Secrets Act, he said: “Well, I don’t know. I don’t believe so. What I’ve reported is information that came to my attention. I don’t know whether that’s the document because I was the Scottish justice secretary. I never saw it. What I believe I refer to was never put before me.

“This is something that I believe should be out there. This wasn’t put before the Scottish court. Why wasn’t it put before the Scottish court? It wasn’t put before the Scottish justice secretary or the Scottish Government.”

Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie has called for Mr MacAskill to be investigated, saying the former minister should “not be profiting” from breaching the Official Secrets Act.

“If I was a terrorist, I was an exceptionally stupid one”

[What follows is excerpted from an article headlined Death cheats Lockerbie bomber of final verdict that was published on the website of South Africa’s Mail & Guardian on this date in 2012:]

The death of the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the sky over Scotland in the week before Christmas 1988, means it is less likely than ever that the full story behind the outrage will be told.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who died in Tripoli on Sunday, two years and nine months after his release from a Scottish jail, always protested his innocence. (...)

The Libyan government paid $2.7-billion in compensation and accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials, but did not admit direct responsibility for the bombing. Megrahi was jailed first at Barlinnie, in Glasgow, and later at Greenock. His wife and children moved to Scotland too.

Years of legal wrangling followed. An appeal was rejected in 2002 and there was also a £1.1-million investigation by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which found that there were six grounds on which a miscarriage of justice may have occurred. A full appeal got under way in April 2009, but it was dropped suddenly the following August, two days before Megrahi was put on an aeroplane to Tripoli. Climbing aboard the plane he wore a white shell-suit to hide body armour. He had been transferred from prison in a bombproof vehicle accompanied by security officers.

An international furore erupted over the release and there were allegations that it had been sanctioned by the British government to secure more business and oil deals with the Gaddafi regime. Gordon Brown’s administration was forced to admit it had known in advance of the release but that it had been a matter for the Scottish justice system. Current British Prime Minister David Cameron always said that Megrahi should have died in jail.  (...)

Although many relatives of Lockerbie victims remain convinced of Megrahi’s guilt, there are some, particularly in Britain, who believe he is innocent. John Ashton, Megrahi’s biographer and author of Megrahi: You Are My Jury, said: “I think there will be moves to reopen the appeal. That has yet to be decided. I would very much hope that his appeal is resurrected and that somebody does make an application to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.”

Ashton’s biography quotes Megrahi as stating he was “framed” for the attack. Although he refused to blame Dumfries and Galloway police, he accused the Crown Office of “a blatant breach” of their obligations to disclose all the evidence in the case. “If I was a terrorist, then I was an exceptionally stupid one,” he said.

The grounds of appeal included compelling evidence that the chief prosecution witness, Tony Gauci, wrongly identified Megrahi and linked him to the bomb that brought down the plane; new evidence that Gauci and his brother were paid large rewards after the conviction; new scientific evidence disputed evidence that the type of timer in the bomb was solely used by the Libyans; and failure to disclose a break-in at Heathrow Airport near flight 103, which could easily have allowed the bomb to be planted.

Ashton, who worked as Megrahi’s researcher during the Libyan’s appeal, said he was upset by his death. “We have always expected this day to come. We’d been expecting it for three years, but it’s still shattering. It’s still pretty shocking. I had come to like him. For all he had been through, there was remarkably little rancour.”

The UK and US authorities have repeatedly brushed off claims by campaigners that the bomb was planted by Syrian agents and Palestinian terrorists in revenge for the attack on an Iranian passenger airliner by a US warship.

Scottish first minister Alex Salmond said: “The Lockerbie case remains a live investigation and Scotland’s criminal justice authorities have made clear that they will rigorously pursue any new lines of inquiry.”

Jim Swire, whose daughter was a passenger on Pan Am 103, told Sky News: “It’s a very sad event. Right up to the end he was determined – for his family’s sake, he knew it was too late for him, but for his family’s sake – how the verdict against him should be overturned.”

Megrahi conviction "probably unsafe" says MacAskill

[This is the headline over a report published today on the ITV News website. It reads in part:]

Scotland's former Justice Secretary has told ITV Border there are doubts about the conviction of the only man found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing. (...)

Now the former Justice Secretary in the first SNP Holyrood government formed in 2007 has written a book about the incident: 'The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search for Justice.'

Some campaigners have always maintained that Megrahi is innocent, whilst other say the special Scottish court set up in the Netherlands for the case came to the right verdict.

“I do think there are now doubts upon the conviction and I tend to think that it probably would result in it being found unsafe.

"But there was a lot of other information regarding Mr Megrahi. Suggestions that some people seem to make that he had no involvement, that there'd been the planting of evidence or whatever, I just believe are entirely defamatory of those involved."

Mr MacAskill's book, published on Thursday, is highly critical of both the US and UK government who he claims opposed the return of Megrahi to Libya while doing deal with the country's then leader Muammar Gadaffi.

The book looks into the details of the bombing, the subsequent police investigation, the trial and the aftermath.