"Will we ever find out the truth?" asks reviewer

[What follows is a review by Irene Brownlee of Lockerbie: Lost Voices published on the East Coast FM website:]

As its name suggests, this play by Lee Gershuny is about the Lockerbie tragedy when a bomb explosion over Lockerbie of PanAm 103 in December 1988 killed 270 people. The play imagines what happened through the perspective of six passengers on board the fatal flight. They are all fictional although one is based on one of the actual victims – the character John was inspired by Major Chuck McKee, a US military intelligence agent. It is a short piece, only around 45 minutes long, but it is well told and very effective.

The play starts in the Airport departure lounge with its hum of background noise. Six characters are waiting to board – an older American couple on their way home from a European trip, a stepmother and daughter with an uneasy relationship, the intelligence agent and his lover, an investigative journalist. The first four are blissfully unaware of any potential danger and we eavesdrop on their everyday conversation and bickering, reminding us of the innocence and normality of the victims. The other two are aware of and discuss dark activities involving clandestine CIA groups, drug running and illegal arms sales and suggest the motive for what follows.

With some simple rearranging of the six chairs on stage, the scene changes to the flight itself and we become more involved with the characters. The explosion when it comes is not a surprise to us but is still shocking. The characters awake into an afterlife where they observe the chaos and aftermath of the crash. Why are CIA agents crawling all over the scene and hiding evidence, why did the son of an FBI chief get off the flight, what is being covered up and will we ever find out the truth?

The final scene is very emotional with the mother and daughter (played by real life mother and daughter Isabella Jarrett and Hannah Jarrett Scott) being reconciled in death and as she sings her a lullaby I found myself with tears rolling down my cheeks. This production is thought provoking and sensitively done. 

[A review on the website of The Stage can be read here. The play can be seen at the Netherbow Theatre, Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR at 7pm until 26 August.]

Police instructed not to investigate three of JFM's criminality allegations

[The campaign group Justice for Megrahi has issued a press release to accompany its secretary’s report on recent meetings with the police officers investigating its allegations of criminal conduct during the investigation, prosecution and trial of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. It reads as follows:]

In an unprecedented action the Crown Office has stopped Police Scotland from investigating criminal allegations of perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice made by Justice for Megrahi (JFM). This action is only the latest twist in what are seen as Crown Office and Government attempts to thwart a public inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the murder of 270 people in the downing of Pan Am 103 on 21 December 1988.

Background

For years Justice for Megrahi has been campaigning to have the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi overturned. For years successive governments and the Crown Office have resisted these pleas.

Last year JFM, following a detailed reassessment of the available evidence, made eight criminal allegations to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on 13 September in relation to the investigation, prosecution and conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. They asked him to order an independent investigation into these matters as some of the allegations involved personnel from the Crown Office, and Scottish police forces including  Dumfries and Galloway. Mr MacAskill refused to act and JFM was forced, under protest, to report the matters to the Dumfries and Galloway Force. From 1 April this year Police Scotland  has been carrying out the investigation.

Before the police had even started their investigations however the Crown Office publicly dismissed them as “defamatory and entirely unfounded” and stated that, “It is a matter of the greatest concern that deliberately false and misleading allegations have been made in this way”. A short time later the Lord Advocate, Mr Frank Mulholland, publicly criticised JFM and their allegations in similar terms.

Last week the police informed members of JFM that the Crown Office had instructed that they should no longer investigate three of the most serious allegations of perjury and perverting the course of justice and that they were not at liberty to give any explanation.

Comment

In 2009 Stone of Scone legend Ian Hamilton QC, a member of the Justice for Megrahi campaign, pointed out that ”When the minister for Justice shares a bed with the Lord Advocate the freedom of us all is in jeopardy… Many of us believe there are prosecutions which are politically driven. Mr Megrahi was one of them.”

http://www.firmmagazine.com/ian-hamilton-qc-the-constitutional-danger-of-bedmates/

Now four years later it seems that the possibility of political interference rears its ugly head yet again. Members of JFM regard this latest development as profoundly disturbing and sinister in that it confirms their original misgivings over having the Crown Office and police effectively investigate themselves. These arrogant and arbitrary actions by the Crown Office undermines the Lord Advocate’s traditional constitutional political independence, raises  serious questions about the entire function and administration of the criminal justice system in Scotland and places at risk the rights of the citizens of Scotland to have to a fair and impartial investigation of their legitimate concerns.

(Note:  A redacted copy of the full allegations and other information can be found at:

http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/justice-for-megrahis-criminality.html.)

[RB: It was indicated by the investigators that although the Crown Office had instructed that the allegations in question should not form part of the current investigation, it was intended that they should be investigated at some unspecified date in the future. Scepticism is, I think, permissible.]

Report on meetings with investigators of JFM's criminality allegations

[What follows is the text of a report distributed yesterday by Justice for Megrahi’s secretary Robert Forrester to JFM signatory members:]

Over the course of Friday 16 August and Monday 19 August four of the five members of the Committee of Justice for Megrahi due to speak to the JFM allegations met with DCC Shearer and DI Sturgeon at Cornwall Mount (Police Scotland Dumfries and Galloway Division Headquarters) in Dumfries. The meetings were convened by DCC Shearer for the purpose of clarifying any gaps or issues which had arisen following his reading of documents relevant to JFM’s eight allegations of criminality levelled at Crown Office, police and forensic officials, and was the first contact the JFM Committee had had with DCC Shearer since the initial preparatory meeting in April.

At the Friday meeting, JFM was represented by committee members Professor Robert Black QC (speaking to allegation 1 – accusing Crown Office representatives of perverting the course of justice in relation to CIA evidence connected to Abdul-Majid Giaka’s Zeist testimony), Mr Iain McKie (speaking to allegation 8 – accusing police officers of coaching Mr Tony Gauci illegally and in contravention of police codes of conduct during the identification procedures of Mr al-Megrahi) and Mr Robert Forrester (speaking to allegation 3 – accusing the police of perverting the course of justice and/or contravening police codes of conduct with regard to Mr Manly’s evidence relating to the Heathrow break in). The interviews were brief and conducted on an individual basis. However, whilst Professor Black was interviewed alone, in the absence of JFM’s legal representative, he sat in on the interviews of Mr McKie and Mr Forrester at their request. All the interviews were constructive and courteous at all times, and, with the exception of a minor point of information with regard to allegation 3, which was cleared up on Monday, provided Mr Shearer with all the information he appeared to be looking for and more.

The Monday meeting addressed allegation 2: the suppression of evidence of the Heathrow ingestion of the IED; allegation 4: the failure to investigate the ‘rogue bag’ at Heathrow; and the addendum: dealing with luggage positioning in AVE4041. These were spoken to by Dr Morag Kerr with Professor Black in attendance as legal representative. As with the Friday meeting, Monday passed straightforwardly.

Followers of the activities of JFM and its allegations will note that whilst allegations 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and the addendum have now been addressed by Mr Shearer in these individual interviews, allegations 5, 6, and 7 have not. Allegation 5 covers perjury in respect of fragment PT/35b. Allegation 6 covers the failure to disclose material evidence relating to PT/35b. Allegation 7 covers the failure to follow up metallurgy findings relating to PT/35b. All of these above allegations are based on information provided by Mr John Ashton, whose book, Megrahi: You are my Jury revealed that the fragment PT/35b could not have originated from one of the circuit boards that were used in one of the timers that were supplied to Libya (one of which, according to the Crown, was used to blow up Flight 103).

At the commencement of the meeting on Friday 16 August between DCC Shearer and the representatives of JFM, Mr Shearer informed JFM that he had approached the Crown Office in respect of allegations 5, 6 and 7. This consultation has resulted in the following: allegations 5, 6 and 7 are not to be investigated by Mr Shearer for the time being on the ground that they conflict with the interests of the current Crown Office/FBI ‘live’ and ‘on-going’ investigation into incriminating other Libyan nationals for complicity with Mr al-Megrahi in the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. In other words, the Shearer investigation of allegations to be spoken to by Mr Ashton has been parked. The JFM representatives unanimously expressed their concern at these developments and made it clear that they only served to underline the relevance of their original request to Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill for an independent investigation free of Crown Office and Scottish police influence.

The position of the Committee of JFM to this news is as follows. We are aware that members of the public do not trust the police investigation of JFM’s allegations. The fact that Mr Shearer ultimately has to report to the Crown Office on matters relating to the JFM allegations does not encourage us to suppose that Police Scotland or DCC Shearer are doing anything other than obeying instructions emanating from Chambers Street. It was Mr MacAskill who put Mr Shearer in his current position of having to deal with our allegations. Mr MacAskill has made it plain by his actions during his tenure as Justice Secretary that he both takes executive action and advances justice legislation largely at the behest of the Crown Office: an institution whose interests seem utterly detached from the service of justice and which are apparently solely concerned with its own self preservation and self image. As such, JFM finds this political relationship as having reached a level of dubiety which is most regrettable and not conducive to public trust..

JFM did not submit its allegations in any mischievous or malicious manner and yet even before the police investigation had begun, the Lord Advocate saw fit to criticise their efficacy and accuracy in a highly public vilification of JFM. In our opinion it is the duty of Police Scotland and the Crown Office, as public servants, to preside over a thorough investigation of all eight of our allegations irrespective of whether or not they conflict with any other investigation before them. Our allegations have no connection whatsoever with any Crown Office investigation into the incrimination of other Libyan nationals being conducted by the Crown Office, they are entirely independent and should be treated as such. Indeed, it has previously been stated by JFM’s secretary, Mr Forrester, that the current so called live and on-going investigation is little more that a charade and eye-wash to deceive the public into thinking that the Crown Office’s hands are clean in this affair, and that, had it not been for the efforts of JFM and others of late, such an ‘investigation’ would more than likely never have suddenly inflated itself from a single officer in Dumfries in 2009 tasked with file management into the political tool it has become today.

At the Friday meeting, Mr Shearer made it plain that he clearly did not feel at liberty to divulge exactly what conflict exists between the issues of PT/35b, allegations 5, 6 and 7, and the apparently unrelated investigation being headed up by the Crown Office. Moreover, he was obviously also not at liberty even to inform JFM who the SIO of the Crown Office investigation is.

JFM regards this development as profoundly disturbing in that it confirms our misgivings over allowing the Crown Office effectively to investigate itself. It questions the entire function and administration of the criminal justice system in Scotland. The citizenry of this country are now put on notice that the Crown Office can direct Police Scotland not to investigate, or to defer indefinitely investigation of, any allegation which calls into question the conduct of the Crown Office itself. This is an outrageous scandal which has far reaching consequences. To some Lockerbie may be history, nonetheless, this current dispute is history in the making in the here and the now. Furthermore, it has the most serious of bearings on the nature of the relationship between a people and how it perceives justice, forms it and endorses it, and all that that implies, and moreover, how that society wishes those whom it appoints and entrusts to administer justice to apply such upon itself.

What we are witnessing here is a Crown Office which is completely out of control and has become a law unto itself. Far from the image of Scottish justice that Mr MacAskill likes to wax lyrical about, the current conduct of the Crown Office is beginning to bear a much closer resemblance to the types of systems prevalent under politically repressive regimes. Scotland’s criminal justice system is now a patient in dire need of intensive care if it is to survive in a form worthy of even minimal respect, and surgery requires to commence at the head.

JFM will, in separate documents, now be requesting the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament to study the developments regarding its allegations currently before the Crown Office, and furthermore, will be considering whether our complaints should be referred to bodies such as Amnesty International and the United Nations International Association of Prosecutors (UNIAP) on the grounds of the Crown Office’s blatant contravention of the UNIAP’s Standards of Professional Responsibility and Statement of Essential Duties and Rights of Prosecutors under sections 2 and 3 of said document (adopted by the UNIAP on 23 April 1999).

He went to Holland expecting justice and never got it

[Four years ago today Abdelbaset Megrahi left Scotland and returned to Libya, having been released on compassionate grounds by Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill. Eddie MacKechnie, the Scottish solicitor who represented him when his successful application was submitted to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission issued a statement on Mr Megrahi’s release.  It reads as follows:]

I am very pleased that Baset has gone home to his wife, family and friends. I strongly believe both Lamin, my original client, and Baset are entirely innocent and thus victims.

To me Baset is a hero and deserved any hint of a hero's welcome he was allowed. He went with Lamin to Holland over 10 years ago expecting justice and never got it. He took the risk for his country and he was welcomed as a hero of his people not because he was ever a terrorist but because he is a son of Libya who suffered for her.

Of course I am sad he abandoned his Appeal he fought so very hard to obtain but I know he had no choice. Politics long usurped any role justice had to play.

The Justice Minister was right to release Baset. It was a decent decision. It was to be expected that as Minister he would support the conviction and laud the Judiciary, Prosecution and Police. It was striking he did not mention another Scottish, statutory body. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. Had he forgotten their findings in favour of Baset and a new Appeal?

The inconvenient truth of this shocking case is that all is far from well within the Scottish legal system and sick to the core in scheming Whitehall. Pressurising a dying man, so desperate to return home, into dropping his legitimate appeal was beneath contempt but at least consistent. To suggest there was no such pressure is preposterous.

[Other reactions to the release can be found on this blog in posts from 20 August 2009 and the following days.]

Living in the shadow of Lockerbie

[This is the headline over a long profile by Michael Russell of Dr Jim Swire which appeared yesterday on the website of the West Highland Free Press. It is full of fascinating information about his life and family background.  The passages that follow are those that relate to the Lockerbie affair:]

Obviously, inevitably, we talk about Lockerbie. Since losing his beloved daughter Flora in that atrocity almost 25 years ago, Dr Jim Swire has thought about little else.

“It has been difficult, but I try to keep my campaigning on Lockerbie within certain bounds,” he tells me at the family’s home-from-home in Orbost, north Skye. “I have to try to remain a human being, in spite of all this.”

That effort involves regular breaks at Leobost, the house that Jim built in the 1970s in an area where he spent a much of his childhood. (...)

After Eton, it was off on national service and his first brush with terrorism.

“I was sent out to Cyprus and the Greeks under Archbishop Makarios were killing British soldiers whenever they could. I saw what happened to morale in our regiment when someone was killed. Our sympathies were with the Turks so when I was on night patrol you went to the Turkish part — it was safe there.”

Talk of terrorism brings Lockerbie to Jim’s mind; I suspect it’s always there, waiting to erupt.  We spend the next 10 minutes discussing timers, break-ins, and geopolitics.

To summarise a horrendous quarter-century of heartbreak, struggle and dogged persistence is, on the face of it, quite simple. Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi didn’t plant the bomb onboard Pan Am Flight 103 — Iranian proxies did, in revenge for the shooting down earlier in 1988 of an Iranian airliner.

Jim’s own journey has taken him from being a “cloth cap-doffing member of the establishment” to having no faith whatsoever in politicians or the judicial system. And behind it all he still misses his daughter.

“She really was a smasher,” he says. “She loved Skye. She came up here on holiday at every opportunity and would go cycling round the island. And when I think of her joking and laughing, walking down through the departure gate, not knowing that just a few hours before there was a break-in at the airport…”

He stops himself before he gets too upset. (...)

In the early 1960s, after achieving the necessary A level grades in evening classes, Jim went to medical school in Birmingham.

“I wanted to do something that benefited humanity. I wanted to use my manual skills and people skills, which weren’t that bright because of my strange, lonely upbringing here. I led a very isolated childhood. I enjoyed it in my own way but it left me not a natural mixer.

“But medicine was perfect because in a medical situation you get people coming to see you because they want some skill that you have got so you don’t need the normal meeting skills  as the situation is already structured for you. The role is already cast for you, and I made some good friends through it.”

His first and only practice as a GP was in Bromsgrove, just a few miles south of Birmingham. This is where Jim and Jane have their permanent home. Their remaining children, William and Catherine, live near Edinburgh and Malvern, Worcestershire, respectively and have children of their own.

In 1991 Jim left the Bromsgrove practice and the medical profession when Lockerbie — first as he tried to bring the Libyans to justice, and then as a post-verdict convert — took over his life. He thinks, however, that his time in the front line of campaigning is drawing to a close.

“We’ll see what happens with e-petition 1370,” he says. “It’s in the hands of the Justice For Megrahi group now.”

Jim hinted that a major revelation would coincide with this December’s 25th anniversary of the bombing. Perhaps he’ll finally be able to lay the past to rest before too long.

Lockerbie disaster featuring on Fringe chat show

One of the topics to be covered tomorrow (Thursday, 15 August) on Verb Garden: The Decent Chat Show is the Lockerbie disaster. Taking part will be playwright Lee Gershuny, author of Lockerbie: Lost Voices; Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre where the play is being performed; and me. The event, chaired by Susan Morrison, starts at 2pm and is held in The Famous Spiegeltent, George Street, Edinburgh. Tickets from £5.

Tenth anniversary of agreement between Libya and Lockerbie families

Ten years ago today, lawyers acting for families of those killed in the Lockerbie disaster signed an agreement with the Libyan government under which, inter alia, compensation amounting in total to $2.7bn would be paid (in installments) and Libya would issue an acceptance of responsibility letter (as required in UN Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 731, 1992). The text of that letter, dated 15 August, can be read here. UN sanctions against Libya were eventually removed by the Security Council on 12 September.

Death of Conservative Party Holyrood justice spokesman

The death has been announced of David McLetchie MSP, former leader of the Conservative group in the Scottish Parliament and latterly his party's justice spokesman and a member of the Justice Committee.

Mr McLetchie and his party have not been noted for sympathy towards the Justice for Megrahi campaign. Mr McLetchie's contributions to the debate, as recorded on this blog, can be found here.  However, it should be mentioned in fairness that his last intervention on the subject in the Justice Committee was in support of keeping live JFM's petition for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie investigation and prosecution and the conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi.

Only two more Fringe performances of The "Lockerbie Bomber"

You have only two more chances to see the Edinburgh Festival Fringe production of the play The "Lockerbie Bomber": Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 July, 12 noon, C Venues, Chambers Street.  Reviews can be read here and here.

"The most important play you will see this year"

[What follows is a review by Alex Eades of the play The “Lockerbie Bomber” published on the Edinburgh Guide website:]

This December will be the 25th anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing and, a quarter of a century after the horrific attack, controversy surrounding the event has never been more heated. With more questions than answers presenting themselves as time has rolled on, suspicion has increased over the official story and calls for a public enquiry have grown ever louder.

Lending its voice to this cry is a new play by Kenneth N Ross, which lays out the facts surrounding the worst terrorist attack ever committed in the United Kingdom. What we arrive at is a story far from the one we have been told and leads us pondering two clear and important questions: was Abdelbaset al-Megrahi truly responsible? And, if not, who was?

The “Lockerbie Bomber” is a powerful, passionate and persuasive piece that will shatter and enrage you. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most important play you will see this year. Everybody should be made to watch this.

Meticulously researched and delivered with real heart and soul by its remarkable cast, the audience was left stunned and bewildered as the show came to its close. The emotion and intelligence that we were confronted with was quite overwhelming, leaving a firm lump in the throat and an unashamed tear in the eye.

Whether or not a public enquiry into the Lockerbie bombing will ever come to light, only time will tell. To protect itself, as the play suggests, the Scottish Government may have little choice but to eventually answer some very awkward questions. Kenneth R Ross’s haunting and brave play has set out its arguments with clarity and heart. Now, will Mr Salmond come and watch?

Runs until 13 Aug, 12 noon.

Venue:

C Venues - C

Company:

Nugget Theatre Company

Running time:

75mins

Production:

Kenneth N Ross

Aljazeera's Lockerbie inaccuracy

[An item on the Aljazeera website accompanying a programme entitled Flight 1103 and subtitled “Is there a connection between Libya's worst-ever aviation disaster and the Lockerbie bombing?” contains the following:]

On December 22, 1992, Libya witnessed the worst aviation disaster in its history when, six minutes before landing, Flight 1103 from Benghazi to Tripoli plummeted 1,000 metres in just 13 seconds. All 157 people aboard were killed.

It was exactly four years and one day after the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland.

But while a Libyan national was convicted for the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people, and Muammar Gaddafi, the country's then leader, eventually conceded Libya's responsibility for the crime, the two disasters, officially at least, appeared to have little in common.

One was regarded as a state-sponsored act of terrorism; the other as an accident attributed by the Libyan government to a mechanical fault.

[Aljazeera really should know better, particularly in the light of its own films Lockerbie: The Pan Am bomber and Lockerbie: Case closed. It simply is not the case that Colonel Gaddafi “eventually conceded Libya's responsibility for the crime”. Libya accepted “responsibility for the actions of its officials”.  The full text of the relevant document can be read here.]

Truth being deliberately denied to Lockerbie relatives

[What follow are excerpts from an article by Phyllis Stephen published today on the website of The Edinburgh Reporter: Those of a sensitive disposition are warned that the article contains a photograph in which I appear.]

One of the best things about the Fringe is that no performance is generally ever more than an hour long.  The problem for this play was that this is a huge story, and a massive conspiracy theory is being unearthed during the telling of it, meaning perhaps that an hour is too short.

The story is powerfully written and powerfully told with only six Pan-Am seats on stage (looking for all the world like upright coffins at first glance) and few other props other than the odd newspaper or handbag. The conversations are taking place all at the same time, just as they would be on the doomed plane when it took off. All of this interaction was carried off with complete aplomb by the six actors from Lee Gershuny’s Edinburgh-based The Elements World Theatre.

Even though you know what happened, there is still a moment of complete shock in store for the audience, and that is made all the more powerful by the scant set.

Dr Jim Swire, father of 23 year-old Flora who died in the crash, has long maintained that there is more to the story. He and Professor Robert Black, Emeritus Professor of Scots Law at University of Edinburgh, write regularly along with Peter Biddulph about their investigations and concerns connected to the Lockerbie bombing (...)  Dr Swire spoke at the opening of Lockerbie: Lost Voices.  After declaring the play ‘skilfully done’, he described crucial evidence that, as alleged in last year’s book Megrahi: You are my Jury by John Ashton, had not been taken into account before the verdict was given in the trial of al-Megrahi.

He said: “A statement from Downing Street was released that branded this book an ‘insult to the relatives’, but that statement itself was the insult, because the relatives just want to know the truth. We are being deliberately denied this by the prosecution service of Scotland. The bombing was clearly a revenge attack; clearly preventable, and that is all here in this play. The people of Scotland have got to rise up and say ‘this isn’t good enough’.” (...)

Professor Black has campaigned long and hard on behalf of what he perceives as the wrong done to the Scottish justice system, and he told The Edinburgh Reporter that he is convinced that the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi will be overturned during his lifetime. Well we shall have to wait and see about that.

But first of all you can go and see the play (...) at the Netherbow Theatre in The Scottish Storytelling Centre over the next three weeks.  A story to give you food for thought, well written and well acted.

[An interview with the playwright, Lee Gershuny, and with the play’s actor-director, Corinne Harris, can be viewed, along with rehearsal footage, on the ITV Border website.]

Trump: FM called Megrahi scapegoat

[This the headline over a report (behind the paywall) in today’s Scottish edition of The Sunday Times.  It reads in part:]

Alex Salmond told Donald Trump that the Lockerbie bomber would be dead “within one week” when he tried to secure his support for the terrorist’s early release from prison, the billionaire has claimed.

Trump, who was once on friendly terms with the first minister, said Salmond made the claim to him in a telephone call days after the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi who lost his battle against prostate cancer nearly three years later. (...)

A spokesman for the tycoon also told The Sunday Times that Salmond privately claimed at the time that Megrahi had been “a scapegoat”.

Salmond has not denied that the discussions took place but a spokesman for the first minister denied the latest claims about the detail of the talks.

Some supporters of Megrahi have long argued that he did not directly participate in the bombing and was used as a scapegoat by the former regime headed by Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. However, the Scottish government’s official position then, as now, was that he was guilty of Britain’s worst terrorist attack. (...)

It first emerged last October that Salmond had asked Trump to endorse the Scottish government’s controversial decision to free Megrahi when a draft statement in Trump’s name prepared by Geoff Aberdein, the first minister’s chief of staff, was leaked. (...)

Trump said: “He called me and was very strong in wanting me to sign that letter or something very similar and I said, ‘I just can’t do it. I think it’s crazy that you did it.’

“He said he did it for humanitarian reasons . . . I told him in the strongest of language, ‘I cant do it, I disagree with your decision,’ and he said, ‘He’ll be dead in a week — because he had cancer — he’ll be dead in one week . . .’ Well, he lived for a couple of years after that and frankly, if they didn’t have the revolution [in Libya] he’d probably still be alive today.”

Trump’s spokesman George Sorial said he and Trump’s son Donald Jr also spoke to Salmond earlier on the day of the talks between the pair.

“Don and I expressed our extreme disagreement and outrage with the decision [to free Megrahi],” said Sorial. “He was responding saying, ‘Well, you don’t really have all the facts,’ and he made statements like, ‘Megrahi was used as a scapegoat.’ ” (...)

Labour said Salmond’s conduct on the Megrahi affair had been unacceptable and that it would be concerned by any suggestion that he regarded Megrahi as a scapegoat in contradiction of previous grounds given for his release.

Elaine Murray, the party’s MSP for Dumfriesshire, said it would be “totally inappropriate” for Salmond to discuss the matter in such terms with Trump.

She added: “If the first minister has the full facts about Megrahi then he should share these with the families who are still looking for answers after all these years.”

Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said Trump’s claims were “embarrassing” for Salmond and underlined the fact that he had “serious questions to answer about the Megrahi release”.

But a spokesman for Salmond said that the memories of Trump and his employees “seem to be playing tricks on them again”, stating that the first minister “made no such comments to Mr Trump on the medical condition of Mr Megrahi”.

He said that the Scottish government had taken the decision to free Megrahi “on compassion grounds following medical advice and for no other reason”.

He added: “The first minister has never, to anyone, second-guessed that medical advice nor questioned Mr Megrahi’s involvement in the Lockerbie atrocity.”