As I write this post the convicted Lockerbie bomber Al-Megrahi is boarding a plane at Glasgow airport that will take him back to his native country Lybia. Earlier today he was released by the Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.

MacAskill issued the following statement:

“Scotland will forever remember the crime that has been perpetrated against our people and those from other lands. Some hurt can never heal. Some scars can never fade. Those who have been bereaved cannot be expected to forget, let alone forgive. Their pain runs deep and the wounds remain.

“However, Mr Al Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power. It is one that no court, in any jurisdiction, in any land, could revoke or overrule. It is terminal, final and irrevocable. He is going to die.

In Scotland, we are a people who pride ourselves on our humanity. It is viewed as a defining characteristic. The perpetration of an atrocity and outrage cannot and should not be a basis for losing sight of who we are, the values we seek to uphold, and the faith and beliefs by which we seek to live.

“Mr Al-Megrahi did now show his victims any comfort or compassion. They were not allowed to return to the bosom of their families to see out their lives, let alone their dying days. No compassion was shown by him to them. But that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his final days.

“Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people, no matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated.

“For these reasons alone it is my decision that Mr Al-Megrahi be released on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya to die.”

Was this the right decision? I think it was for the reasons given by MacAskill but it again highlights a fundamental moral issue: Do our own values also apply to those who don’t reciprocate them?