THE SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE Alex Salmond has said that his administration released Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi on compassionate grounds last year.

Salmon reportedly wrote a strongly worded letter to US senator John Kerry, denying that BP had anything to do with Scotland’s decision.

He expressed his “revulsion” at al-Megrahi’s actions, which resulted in the deaths of 270 people, but stressed compassion.

Salmon wrote:

“I can say unequivocally that the Scottish Government has never, at any point, received any representations from BP in relation to al Megrahi.

That is to say we had no submissions or lobbying of any kind from BP, either oral or written, and, to my knowledge, the subject of al Megrahi was never raised by any BP representative to any Scottish Government minister. That includes the Justice Minister, to whom it fell to make the decisions on prisoner transfer and compassionate release on a quasi-judicial basis.”

Scotland has released 39 prisoners on the basis of an application for compassionate release, which was introduced in 1993.

Medical tests received by the Scottish authorities last year indicated that al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal cancer, would die within three months.