Megrahi: Salmond vows transparency

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A political firestorm erupted after Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi returned to Tripoli on Thursday night to "a hero's welcome".

He was freed by the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds.

On Monday, Mr MacAskill faced a barrage of questions after the Scottish Parliament was recalled for an emergency session. But he insisted he had made the right decision.

And on Monday night Alex Salmond hinted that details of Mr MacAskill's controversial visit to Megrahi, who was convicted of murdering 270 people in the 1988 Pan Am bombing, in prison before making his decision could be published.

He told Newsnight: "Kenny MacAskill indicated that we are going to publish whatever we can and you will see over the next few days the Scottish government is willing to publish every significant matter as far as the decision-making is concerned. We have absolutely nothing to hide."

Meanwhile, relatives of victims of IRA terrorism in the UK have stepped up their calls for compensation from Libya following Megrahi's release, the BBC reported.

The families want Libya, which supplied weapons and explosives to the IRA during the Troubles, to publicly recognise the pain it inflicted through its support for terrorism and believe that Megrahi's return to Tripoli will help their cause.

Colin Parry, whose 12-year-old son Tim was killed in the IRA attack in Warrington in 1993, is urging Gordon Brown to back their call for compensation.

The Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who is hoping to travel to Libya with some of the relatives in the autumn, said the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi should show the same compassion as the Scottish government.