Book on Lockerbie bombing will show individuals outside of Scotland 'should hang their head in shame', claims Kenny MacAskill

Former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill has claimed his forthcoming book on the Lockerbie bombing will show that figures outside of Scotland "should hang their head in shame”.

The former SNP cabinet minister is set to publish a book six-and-a-half years on from releasing the only man convicted of the atrocity which claimed 270 lives.   

MacAskill made the controversial decision to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi – who had been jailed in 2001 over the 1988 bombing – on compassionate grounds. Megrahi protested his innocence up until his death in Libya in 2012, almost three years after his release from Greenock Prison.

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In an interview with Holyrood before stepping down as an MSP last week, MacAskill, who remained tight-lipped on the contents of the book, described his decision to release the Libyan as an “Andy Warhol moment” and admitted he failed to realise the level of worldwide attention it would attract.

He said: “What I can say, without disclosing the full contents of the book, I knew we were a cog in a wheel, what I didn’t realise was how small a cog and how big a wheel.

“I think what comes out of this is that others should hang their head in shame and none of them are in Scotland.”

MacAskill, who served as justice secretary between 2007 and 2014, refused to expand, however he did defend his decision to publish a book in the first place, adding that it had never been his intention to do so.

He said: “I have to say I think this is my opportunity to tell people [what happened], there are a lot of things out there that people want to know and I think I am entitled to do that. That’s how I see it, I think this is a matter more of setting the record straight.”

Asked to recount his memories of meeting Megrahi at Greenock Prison a few weeks before granting his release in 2009, MacAskill said it was “very functional”. Bringing Megrahi to see him at St Andrew’s House was “one of the options” presented, he added.

“That was clearly preposterous – it would have been an OJ Simpson scenario," he said. "The easiest thing for security, given he was a prisoner, was simply to go to Greenock Prison.”

A Police Scotland report into nine allegations of criminality over the authorities’ handling of the Lockerbie investigation is nearing conclusion, the single force confirmed earlier this month.

Holyrood revealed yesterday that MacAskill has suggested the SNP should drop its flagship commitment to keep 1,000 more police officers than they inherited in 2007.