Alex Salmond last night told US Senator John Kerry that oil giant BP did not influence the decision to release the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

The First Minister sent a strongly worded letter to Kerry denying the company lobbied Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.

His move follows several days of condemnation and accusations from the US over Megrahi’s early release from prison last year on compassionate grounds.

Next week, the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, which Kerry chairs, will hold a hearing into suspicions he was freed because of an oil-for-terrorist deal between BP and Libya.

In his letter, Salmond emphasises the revulsion felt by the Scottish nation and its government at the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which claimed the lives of 270 people, 190 of them American.

He tells Kerry: “I can say unequivocally that the Scottish Government has never, at any point, received any representations from BP in relation to al Megrahi.

“That is to say we had no submissions or lobbying of any kind from BP, either oral or written, and, to my knowledge, the subject of al Megrahi was never raised by any BP representative to any Scottish Government minister. That includes the Justice Minister, to whom it fell to make the decisions on prisoner transfer and compassionate release on a quasi-judicial basis.”

The First Minister also points out that BP has admitted seeking to influence the UK Government to conclude a Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) with Tripoli, and stresses: “I must make clear the Scottish Government strongly opposed the PTA and the memorandum that led to it was agreed without our knowledge and against our wishes.”

Salmond stresses that if the Senate committee is concerned about BP’s role or the PTA, then “it is BP and the previous UK administration that should be the focus of your inquiries”.

Megrahi was allowed to return home to Libya in August last year after medical experts told MacAskill they expected him to die from prostate cancer within three months.

Salmond explains that Megrahi was freed on the basis of an application for compassionate release, noting that some 39 prisoners, including the Libyan, had been freed under Scottish legal provisions introduced in 1993.

The First Minister defends the integrity of the medical advice that formed the basis of MacAskill’s decision and notes that, at the time of the prognosis of Megrahi’s life expectancy of three months, there was always a recognition he could die sooner or live longer.