Lockerbie documents to be published

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A dossier of official documents shedding light on the release of the Lockerbie bomber is due to be published, the UK government said Monday.

Disclosures from the eagerly-anticipated publication may throw up new questions for the former Labour government and Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, commentators said.

MacAskill sanctioned the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds in August 2009, because he was supposed to have little time left to live. Al-Megrahi is still alive in Tripoli.

The publication follows Prime Minister David Cameron’s promise to US president Barack Obama that he would review the paperwork in the case.

Cameron asked Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, to conduct the review and ensure that everything that could be made public was.

The tranche of letters, memos and minutes is described as “comprehensive”.

The Prime Minister discussed Libya with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton when they met at a security conference in Munich last Saturday.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said they had “strongly agreed that the release of the Lockerbie bomber had been a mistake”.

It was reported last week that Libya had been given advice by a then UK Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell on how to secure al-Megrahi’s release.

Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town on December 21 1988, killing 270 people in the air and on the ground.

KUNA

KUNA is the Kuwait News Agency

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