Anoth er problem the British government needs to address is why it wanted Megrahi transferred to Libya anyway, not as a free man but as a prisoner who could continue his sentence there under an exchange agreement.
We know the importance the British government attached to this prisoner agreement, because Justice Secretary Jack Straw told a House of Commons committee in March: “Both the foreign secretary and I believe, in the interests of our judicial and wider bilateral relations with Libya, it is important to ratify [the agreement].”
The agreement was ratified in April without the committee having time to issue its own report and the chairman said it had been rushed through to pave the way for Megrahi’s transfer.
British wishes have been confirmed in a letter that a Foreign Office minister, Ivan Lewis, wrote to the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
Mr Lewis was clarifying that there was no legal impediment to the use of the prisoner transfer agreement in the Megrahi case.
“I hope on this basis you will now feel able to consider the Libyan application in accordance with the provisions of the prisoner transfer agreement,” he said.