ONE can't help but share in the outrage expressed by Hawick woman Sandra Johnston in today's paper. She's venting her anger at Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, whose somewhat puzzling intervention in the case of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's bid for freedom looks likely to see the mass murderer released as early as Tuesday on compassionate grounds.

Compassionate? Megrahi? He has the blood of 270 victims on his hands, including the auntie and uncle of Mrs Johnston, and as such he should see out his days in prison. More than 20 years on, memories of the worst terrorist attrocity in British history are still raw, and for Mr MacAskill to even consider releasing Megrahi is an affront to justice and a real kick in the teeth for the relatives of those murdered.

"Why should he be freed when he killed so many people?" asks Mrs Johnston. Why indeed. Had Megrahi been incarcerated for 30 years and shown remorse for his terrible crime, then yes, as a dying man, there would be nothing to be gained from keeping him behind bars.

But Megrahi was only convicted in 2001 and has never expressed a smidgeon of remorse.

So we join today with Susan Johnston in asking Mr MacAskill: "Why the hell did you have to stick your nose in?"