THE cancer which killed the man convicted for the Lockerbie bombing was a "gift from God" to establishments with something to hide, according to the Libyan's biographer.
John Ashton made the claim at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which opened yesterday, which also featured other high-profile critics of the controversial case.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, pictured, died from prostate cancer in May in Libya after being released from prison in Scotland in 2009 on compassionate grounds.
Ashton said: "Megrahi's cancer was a gift from God for everybody involved that had something to hide.
"It allowed his release, it allowed the final stages of the rapprochement between the UK and Libya, and it allowed the Scottish Government to allow him out of prison on a legal basis that wasn't one laid down by the hated government in Westminster."
The course of events was a "political fix", he also told the audience at the venue in Charlotte Square.
More than 750 events will take place at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which runs until August 27.
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