Salmond: Scots law principles were followed
Scottish first minister Alex Salmond defends the decision to free Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi one year on:
“We made representations to the Libyan government earlier this week following newspaper reports that there would be some sort of party. I understand… no such party has been planned.
“It would be inappropriate because it would add to the suffering and anxiety of the relatives of the Lockerbie atrocity.
“We understand the anxieties. But we did not take a decision based on commercial or business or economic grounds. We followed the due processes of Scots law.
“There have been three prisoners with terminal conditions who have survived longer than a year. Many have survived longer than three months since the legislation was introduced in 1993.
“Everybody watching this knows from their own life experience – friends, relatives, people with terminal cancer, the huge difficulty [of] exact formulation of life expectancy.
“Again, it’s a matter of fact a few weeks before Mr Megrahi was released Ronnie Biggs… was released and Mr Biggs is still alive. It cannot be an exact science.
“All we ask people to understand is every decision we’ve made in Scotland has followed the principles of Scots law.”
