Bomber decision to be 'judicial'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/8038524.stm

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A decision on transferring the Lockerbie bomber to Libya will be taken on "judicial grounds alone", First Minister Alex Salmond has said.

His comments came after the Libyan authorities submitted a request for the transfer of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.

Scottish ministers have the final say on whether the deal is done.

Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of carrying out the 1988 atrocity, which claimed 270 lives when Pan-Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town.

The 57-year-old, who is suffering from prostate cancer and is being held in Greenock Prison, has just begun a second appeal against his conviction.

'Judicial processes'

However any transfer - under a prisoner transfer agreement recently ratified by the UK and Libyan governments - cannot take place while legal proceedings are under way.

This means the appeal may have to be abandoned if Megrahi's transfer to Libyan jail was to take place.

During question time at Holyrood, the first minister said it would have been "greatly to be preferred if the judicial processes of Scotland" were allowed to take its course.

"What I have said throughout this process is that everything we do as a government will uphold the integrity of the Scottish judicial system," he said.

"Let me repeat that today - and also say the decision made by the justice secretary (Kenny MacAskill) will not be made on economic grounds or on political grounds, it will be made on judicial grounds and judicial grounds alone."

Mr Salmond was responding to questions from Scottish Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott, who said Megrahi - who was tried under Scots law - should serve his sentence in Scotland.