Cancer-stricken Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the only man convicted of planting the bomb that killed 270 people on December 21, 1988, was freed in August last year by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds because it was thought he only had three months to live.
The decision prompted immediate anger on both sides of the Atlantic and a hardening of attitudes over whether the conviction had been safe. US politicians also examined claims the release was linked to oil deals with Libya.
Conservative justice spokesman John Lamont said yesterday: “The decision by the SNP to release the Lockerbie bomber was a bad decision, made badly.
“But, as a consequence he has spent the last 18 months with his family and friends in Libya. He has been allowed to live his final weeks and months with those he loves.
“That is something he denied his victims.”
Megrahi is under the control of a probation in East Renfrewshire, where a spokesman said there had been no change in the condition of Megrahi so far as they knew.
Megrahi’s doctor and other representatives in Tripoli have to remain in touch with a notional parole base in East Renfrewshire, where it was stressed that there were no sudden adverse health reports and all his parole conditions were being observed.
A Scottish Government spokesman said last night: “Our thoughts and sympathies are with all those affected by the events of that terrible night, but most especially the families and relatives, wherever they are in the world.
“Scotland’s justice system has been dealing with the Lockerbie atrocity for 22 years and in every regard the due process of Scots law has been followed -- in terms of the investigation, prosecution, imprisonment, rejection of the prisoner transfer application and granting of compassionate release.”
