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Megrahi case brought MacAskill into limelight
Chris Laker2 Sep 2009
The man responsible for releasing the dying Lockerbie bomber is a lawyer-politician previously unknown on the world stage.
Through Scottish devolution it fell to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to decide whether Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi should die in prison or return home to his native Libya on compassionate grounds.
More then 10 years had elapsed since the Lockerbie bombing when Mr MacAskill first entered the Scottish Parliament in 1999.
Another decade later, the former lawyer faced the most difficult decision of his political career.
The Libyan was convicted of killing 270 people by blowing up a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish borders in the depths of winter in 1988.
As justice minister, Mr MacAskill kept an uncharacteristically low profile while pondering his decision but went out of his way to solicit opinion.
Most controversially of all, he visited Megrahi in prison on August 5.
Critics accused him of setting a "ridiculous and unworkable precedent".
He took soundings from all sides, including British and US relatives of the victims and the Libyan government, and was told direct by Hillary Clinton of American unhappiness at the prospect of Megrahi heading home to Libya.
Affable and down-to-earth, Mr MacAskill is one of the SNP administration's heavyweights and an effective debater.
But he has also shown an occasional tendency to generate the wrong sort of headlines.
The justice secretary who wants a big cut in the numbers being given short sentences was criticised in May when he described life in Scotland's jails as "a bit of a skoosh".
Long before becoming an MSP, he once referred to the England football team as "the great Satan" during an SNP conference.
Ten years ago he was held by police before the Euro 2000 play-off against England at Wembley stadium on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.
The former lawyer spend the duration of the game in cells but was later released without being charged or cautioned, after what he described as "a simple misunderstanding".
MacAskill, 51, was once tipped as a future party leader and was a contender for the deputy leadership nine years ago.
Before Parliament, he worked as a senior partner in an Edinburgh law firm from 1984 to 2000.
In his earlier years he was viewed as one of the SNP's "fundamentalists", critical of more gradual approaches to independence.
A left-winger, he was among those calling for a policy overhaul after the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999, and for the party to move away from socialism towards a more business-friendly outlook.
Before Holyrood, he stood four times at Westminster - first in 1983 against Labour's Robin Cook in Livingston.
He was elected a Lothians list MSP in 1999 and 2003, before winning Edinburgh East and Musselburgh seat from Labour at the 2007 election.
