Lockerbie appeal. Lack of media interest.

[Magda Hassan]

Alex Salmond calls for release of Lockerbie files

Mr Salmond said the documents would vindicate the Scottish government
The Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments to publish all of their documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
Alex Salmond said US authorities had not wanted Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi to be released from a Scottish prison.
But he claimed they said it would be preferable for Megrahi to be released on compassionate grounds rather than under a prisoner transfer agreement.
He said the documents would "vindicate" the Scottish government's actions.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Salmond emphasised that the Scottish government had made public all of its own documents relating to the release of Megrahi in August last year.
He said the UK and US governments had refused to grant permission for some of the correspondence they had with the Scottish government ahead of Megrahi's release to be published.
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The Sunday Times has claimed to have seen a letter in which the US administration advised the Scottish government that it would be "far preferable" for Megrahi to be released on compassionate grounds than to jail him in Libya under the prisoner transfer agreement.
Mr Salmond did not explicitly confirm the existence of the letter.
But he said: "I think that a fair description of the American government's position is they didn't want al-Megrahi to be released.
"However, if he was to be released, they thought it was far preferable for compassionate release as opposed to the prisoner transfer agreement.
"Presumably the reason that they were so opposed to the prisoner transfer agreement is on roughly the same grounds as the Scottish government had for opposing that agreement - because it was signed initially at the same time as an oil deal was being signed in the famous Deal in the Desert."
Last week, President Barack Obama told a White House press conference that the US had been "surprised, disappointed and angry" about Megrahi being released.
The Scottish government has refused to send any representatives to a US Senate committee hearing into Megrahi's release, which is due to be held on Thursday.
The committee, which is to be chaired by New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, wants to establish whether oil giant BP influenced the decision.
Mr Menendez is also understood to have requested that the correspondence between the Scottish and US governments be published.
Former UK Home Secretary Jack Straw has also declined an invitation to appear before the committee.
Megrahi was jailed after being convicted by a Scottish court of murdering 270 people by blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, in south west Scotland, in 1988.
The majority of those who died were US citizens.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-10754690