By DPA,
Washington: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged British and Scottish authorities to review the decision last year to release the only person convicted for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner.
Clinton said in a letter to senators angry over the release of Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi that she has communicated the US position to her British counterpart, William Hague, the State Department said Monday.
“We are encouraging the Scottish and British authorities to review again the underlying facts and circumstances leading to the release of al-Megrahi and to consider any new information that has come to light since his release,” she said in the letter.
Scottish authorities, who had jurisdiction over the case, released al-Megrahi in August 2009 on humanitarian grounds. He was suffering from cancer and at the time doctors believed he had only three months to live. He is still alive.
Further, reports have surfaced suggesting energy giant BP Plc pressured Scottish authorities to free him, hoping that doing so would help the firm gain access to lucrative oil fields in Libya.
The US firmly opposed the decision and the Senate plans to conduct hearings this week into whether Scotland was influenced by motivations beyond al-Megrahi’s health.
The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people, among them 189 Americans.
The issue has surfaced ahead of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s first meeting at the White House Tuesday with President Barack Obama. Downing Street says that Cameron will tell Obama that he opposed al-Megrahi’s release, which took place under his predecessor.