Kenny MacAskill says he has ‘always believed’ Masud is Lockerbie bomber
The former Scottish justice secretary spoke out ahead of the trial in the US next year of Libyan Abu Agila Masud – who denies three charges.
Former Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said he has “always believed” Libyan national Abu Agila Masud of being involved in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Mr MacAskill came under fire for his decision to free the only man ever convicted of the atrocity, which saw PanAm flight 103 blown up over the Dumfries and Galloway town, killing 270 people.
The former Holyrood justice secretary controversially released former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of their murders in 2001, on compassionate grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
However, prosecutors have always maintained Megrahi acted with others in carrying out the attack.
He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I have always believed he is the bomber.”
Speaking on the anniversary of the attack, Mr MacAskill said: “He was always viewed as the man who was the bomber because of his what you might call military skills, so he has been taken by the United States, Libya handed him over.
“He has returned and will face trial in America, I believe he will be convicted, and he is the bomber.”
He added: “Megrahi himself didn’t have the skills to do so, but that doesn’t mean Megrahi didn’t have a role in the operation.”
While Mr MacAskill was criticised by victims’ families in the US over his decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds, the former justice secretary insisted that in doing so he had “followed the values and laws we uphold in Scotland”.
He released him in August that year – though Megrahi did not die until almost three years later in May 2012.
Mr MacAskill said: “We do have rules for compassionate release which exist in Scotland. It is dealt with by medial experts, the report came in that he had a prognosis of three months. It was on that basis I released him.
“He was no threat to Scotland, he was a sick man, he lived considerably longer than the prognosis but I think there is reasons for that.”
He added: “I followed the values and laws we uphold in Scotland and sent him home to see out the rest of his life.”
All 259 passengers and crew travelling to the US on Pan Am flight 103 and 11 people on the ground were killed when the plane exploded above the Scottish town in 1988 in what remains Britain’s deadliest terrorist atrocity.
Scotland’s most senior prosecutor Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC said recently the trial will enable the circumstances of what happened to be “fully understood”.
She stated: “The original trial at the Scottish court in the Netherlands considered Crown evidence from 227 witnesses over 72 days. Megrahi was convicted and that decision has been upheld twice at appeal.
“The forthcoming trial in Washington will bring the facts of this case before the public again and the circumstances of what happened can be fully understood.”
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: “Thirty-six years on from the terrible tragedy of the Lockerbie bombing, it is right that we take time to remember those who lost their lives, and indeed all those affected by what happened that night.
“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the 270 who perished in the air and on the ground, and all those in the town who saw such devastation rain down on them.”
