The Scottish government is facing an embarrassing vote of censure after the crisis over its controversial decision to free the Lockerbie bomber deepened on Monday.
Opposition leaders forced First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond to hold a parliamentary vote next week — which his government is expected to lose heavily — over the decision to send Abdelbaset al-Megrahi home to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli last Thursday.
Salmond agreed to a fresh debate on the Lockerbie affair after members of the Scottish parliament were recalled to the parliament on Monday for an emergency session to hear the Scottish justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, explain his decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray, lead the attacks by accusing MacAskill of a “deeply flawed” decision that had “damaged Scotland’s reputation from start to finish.”
The minister had been “mishandling the whole affair from start to finish,” he said.
MacAskill’s discomfort grew after Gray later said the minister had mislead parliament by saying he was required to meet Megrahi in person earlier this month under a prisoner transfer treaty signed by the UK and Tripoli.
Jack Straw, the UK justice secretary, confirmed on Monday that this was not true, Gray said. MacAskill was only required to take written representations from Megrahi.
“MacAskill has been caught out misleading parliament over his claim he was duty-bound to meet Megrahi in person,” Gray said.
Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, said the “disturbing” decision to release Megrahi because he is close to death from prostate cancer “was not done in the name of Scotland, or in the name of this parliament, or in my name.”
Goldie said that keeping Megrahi in a secure house or hospice in Scotland would have served justice better “than by a convicted terrorist being feted as a hero in Libya to a backdrop of waving saltires [Scottish flags].”
Freeing Megrahi would now be the “defining image” of the Scottish National party’s four years in government, said Tavish Scott, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader. It had deeply damaged Scotland’s reputation abroad, he said.
“What the first minister and his government have done is to split Scotland, split our country within itself and split our nation from many international friends,” Scott said.
The Megrahi decision has seen Salmond’s administration enduring the most intense criticisms and attacks since it came to power, after Robert Mueller, the FBI director, described it as “making a mockery of the rule of law.”
US President Barack Obama also joined US relatives of the 270 people killed in the bombing by criticizing the decision.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was told on Monday night that his “deafening silence” over the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing was harming Britain.
As ministers voiced concern in private that Labour’s difficult relations with the Scottish National Party may have exacerbated the crisis, opposition politicians in London lined up to demand that the prime minister speak up.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said it was “absurd and damaging” that Brown remained silent. Liam Fox, the Scottish-born Conservative party spokesman on defense, said it was “cowardly” of Brown to congratulate the victorious England cricket team while saying nothing about the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
The prime minister’s office in London, insisted on Monday that it would be wrong for Brown to speak about the release, because of Scotland’s devolved constitutional settlement within the UK.
“It was and it remains a decision for the Scottish justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill,” a spokesman said. “Clearly the prime minister recognizes this was a very difficult decision, and clearly an extremely sensitive one, and there will be very strong feelings from the families of those people who were victims of this terrorist attack.”
However, Downing Street made it clear that Brown, who had asked Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to ensure a low-key reception for Megrahi, was angered by the triumphalist scenes when he arrived home.
A spokesman said: “He found the scenes at Tripoli airport thoroughly distasteful and fully supports what the foreign secretary and [finance minister] Alistair Darling have said, and will continue to work with the Libyans to ensure that those things are not repeated.”
Brown’s opponents said this did not go far enough.
Clegg said: “Although the decision to release Megrahi was a Scottish one, for which Gordon Brown was not personally responsible, the fallout puts the UK at the center of an international storm. In these circumstances, it is absurd and damaging that the British prime minister simply remains silent in the hope that someone else will take the flak.”
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