EDINBURGH, Scotland, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Scotland's justice secretary says he is ready to meet with members of the U.S. Senate and defend the decision to release a Libyan terrorist.
Kenny MacAskil said the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was made appropriately and given due process -- despite the fact that the cancer-stricken airliner bomber is still alive nearly a year after he was released with a prognosis of dying within three months.
Megrahi was sent back to Libya last year after serving nearly 10 years for the bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103, which crashed in Scotland and killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.
Scottish officials said the release was made on humanitarian grounds because Megrahi was supposedly at death's door. Critics have since raised questions about the role that access to Libyan oil reserves may have played in the matter.
A group of U.S. senators have condemned the release and are demanding access to medical records to find out how accurate the diagnosis was.
MacAskil told the BBC he was willing to meet with the U.S. lawmakers but reiterated that the decision to release Megrahi was one reserved for the Scottish government.
The United States, meanwhile, is warning Libya not to throw any official celebrations to mark the 1-year anniversary of Megrahi's release. The New York Daily News said Saturday that official statements to that effect were issued Friday by the British government and the U.S. Department of State.
