20100724
reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator has asked that a Scottish representative appear at next week's congressional hearing on the release of the Libyan man convicted

Two Scottish officials have declined to appear before the the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is examining circumstances of Scotland's decision last year to release Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of bombing a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The committee hearing scheduled for July 29 also is looking into whether British energy giant BP Plc influenced the bomber's release.

In a letter sent on Friday to Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, Senator Frank Lautenberg said he was "pleading for direct representation from the Scottish government" at the hearing "to help us seek answers."

"Your cooperation in sending a knowledgeable person will help establish a credible record of what transpired," wrote Lautenberg, a Democrat from New Jersey, which was home to a number of the bombing victims.

"We are also witnessing the U.K. government claiming the release was entirely the decision of the Scottish government and vice versa," Lautenberg said.

"Those who commit vicious acts of terrorism have to know that they will be punished without compassion. Your government's participation in our hearing will help send that message," he concluded.

The hearing will examine whether BP's oil interests influenced the 2009 release of the only person convicted in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 that killed 270 people, most of them Americans.

The bomber's release by Scotland last year triggered an international outcry that has complicated U.S.-British relations already frayed by the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.