Lockerbie bomber

If it was mistake for Blair to considering releasing him then why did Salmond eventually release him??


Lockerbie deal a mistake - Scottish leader | The Daily Telegraph

SCOTTISH leader Alex Salmond attacked the UK Government for having tried to include the Lockerbie bomber in a prisoner-transfer deal with Libya before his eventual release.

Mr Salmond - whose administration drew fierce criticism for releasing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi on humanitarian grounds last year - said the attempted deal by then-prime minister Tony Blair's Government was a "mistake" during a Parliamentary hearing in London.

"It was a mistake because it raised an expectation by the Libyan government that Megrahi would be included in such a prisoner transfer," Salmond said, referring to negotiations on a deal which was eventually sealed in 2008.

"It was a mistake because it cut across the due process of Scots law, because one of the provisions of prisoner transfer is that legal proceedings would have to come to an end.