02 Sep 2009
The British prime minister is faced with mounting pressure after new details were revealed on the discussions about the release of the sole man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

Gordon Brown and his Foreign Secretary David Miliband have been drawn into furor after the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was sentenced to life in prison by a Scottish court for his role in the bombing of a PanAm flight over Lockerbie in Scotland in which 270 people were killed.

On Tuesday, the British and Scottish governments released a series of documents in which former Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell confirmed he told Libya's Europe minister in a February meeting that Brown did not want the Lockerbie bomber to die in a Scottish prison.

The message had come amid warnings from Tripoli that allowing Megrahi to die in prison would amount to a 'death sentence'.

Later Rammell told the BBC he had conveyed Brown's feelings to the Libyans: "I did say that. But we need to put it in context. I was making it emphatically clear that this was a decision for Scottish ministers."

Scotland released terminally-ill Megrahi on August 20, sparing him the remaining 19 years of his 27-year sentence.

presstv