| Friday 21 August 2009 - 22.30 BST - BBC TWO Presented by Gavin Esler From the web team: The controversy surrounding the Scottish justice secretary's decision to release Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi continues to build. The White House described scenes of celebration at his return to Tripoli as "disturbing". The Foreign Office indicated that Prince Andrew may cancel an official visit there, and it is has emerged that Gordon Brown wrote to Colonel Gaddafi asking that Megrahi be given a "low key" return. But then the Westminster government was not the one making the decision over whether he be set free - that decision fell to Holyrood - and Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond says that the government there "did not consider matters of international politics from whatever source". Tonight, our Political editor Michael Crick will be looking at what the decision means for Scotland, devolution and the prospects for future Scottish independence. Our Economics editor Paul Mason will be examining the Libyan-Scottish rapprochement, and to what extent the diplomatic wheels were oiled by the rush for oil. Ninety-five per cent of Libya's export earnings come from petroleum products, and, having taken itself out of the rogue states category, Libya is now ready to talk business. How much will the Megrahi release benefit the major British oil and gas companies bidding for highly competitive contracts with the country? Plus, in announcing that Megrahi would be freed, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said that the bomber, who has terminal cancer, "now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power". Was it right to invoke God when announcing a political decision? Join Gavin Esler for all that and more at 10.30pm on BBC Two.
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