Megrahi update

This oil spill business in the Gulf of Mexico has now washed up on the shores of Scotland with some American senators suggesting that BP may have lobbied to get Megrahi, the Libyan chap convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, freed from a Scottish jail. Cameron is grovelling to the yanks over the case but the sister of one of the victims is not so thrilled:

It is difficult to contain my anger at the announcement of the latest attempt by the US to discredit the administration of justice in respect of the prosecution and sentencing of the Lockerbie perpetrator(s). It is impossible to disguise my contempt for successive leaders of a nation which vaunts its model of democracy as sufficiently valuable to justify interference in other states' internal affairs.

After long international consideration, a unique court constituted for that purpose with agreed jurisdiction tried two men for the bombing. Megrahi alone was convicted. After the conviction, managing his sentence was a matter for the Scottish administration, and as the sister of one of the victims of the incident I both advocated for Megrahi's release and was delighted Scotland did free him.

It is not relevant to this decision that Megrahi may now have recovered somewhat. I wish him well and hope that, whether or not the conviction accurately reflected what actually happened, he will find some peace in the rest of his life.

What an insult by the US to all of us who have a direct personal interest in discovering and dealing with the truth about the largest modern mass murder in Britain, a truth which as yet is very far from ascertained.

Julia Cadman

St Helens, Merseyside

These opportunists across the pond ought to be careful. The truth might come out that Megrahi had nothing to do with the bombing in the first place.