Megrahi at Death's Door - For The Last Eighteen Months

Labour was accused yesterday of having been ‘up to its neck’ in securing the early release of the Lockerbie bomber. Extraordinary official documents revealed the last government did ‘all it could’ to have Abdelbaset al-Megrahi returned to Libya.

Ministers were accused of ‘acting like lawyers for the Libyans’ as the unprecedented release of Whitehall papers revealed how the Labour government had a ‘game plan’ and secretly plotted to ‘facilitate’ an appeal by the Libyans over Megrahi. They were determined to seal a BP oil deal and strengthen political ties with Libya, a review headed by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell found. Sir Gus’s report highlights confidential memos and letters that reveal horse trading between London and Edinburgh linking the fate of Megrahi – Britain’s worst mass murderer – to other issues.

Soon after he became prime minister, Gordon Brown wrote to Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi promising to ‘fulfil all the undertakings’ made by his predecessor Tony Blair, which included a prisoner transfer deal, the documents showed. Sir Gus’s analysis of the papers said: ‘Once Megrahi had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in September 2008, (government) policy was based upon an assessment that UK interests would be damaged if Megrahi were to die in a UK jail.’ Other letters showed Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell met with his Libyan counterpart and wrote to him advising on how to petition authorities in Scotland for Megrahi’s ‘compassionate release’.

On 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and crew and 11 residents of Lockerbie. On 31 January 2001, Mr Megrahi was found guilty.

On 19 August 2009 Kenny MacAskill approved Mr Megrahi's application for compassionate release to Libya on the grounds that the clinical assessment that a three month prognosis for Mr Megrahi was a reasonable estimate. Mr Megrahi was returned to Libya on 20 August 2009. Despite intensive lobbying by HMG to ensure that a high profile return was avoided, Mr Megrahi was met at the airport by several hundred people. Eighteen months later, cancer-sufferer Megrahi is still alive and living as a free man in Tripoli.