Alex Salmond, Kenny MacAskill, Stephen Maxwell, and others were expelled ; Roseanna Cunningham was not, on the grounds that she was not a member of the interim committee.

Born in Edinburgh, MacAskill was educated at Linlithgow Academy and Edinburgh University, and was a senior partner in a law firm.

MacAskill was born in Edinburgh and was educated at Linlithgow Academy before studying law at the University of Edinburgh.

In 1999 MacAskill was detained in London before the Euro 2000 second leg play-off match between Scotland and England on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.

Upon their election as leader and deputy leader respectively MacAskill was selected to be the SNP's deputy leader in the Scottish Parliament, making him the shadow Deputy First Minister.

MacAskill authored a book, ' Building a Nation-Post Devolution Nationalism in Scotland ', which was launched at the SNP's 2004 annual conference in Inverness.

For the 2007 Scottish Parliament election MacAskill was top of the SNP's party list for the Lothians region.

MacAskill also insisted that the 2007 terror attack on Glasgow Airport was not committed by ' home-grown ' terrorists in that the suspects were not " born or bred " in Scotland but had merely lived in the country for a " period of time ".

The Scottish Parliament was recalled from its summer break, for the third time since its creation, to receive a statement from and question MacAskill.

The opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament passed amendments criticising the decision and the way it was made, but no motions of confidence in MacAskill or the Scottish Government were tabled.

The distillery was founded in 1830 by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill, and built in 1831 at Carbost after a number of false starts on other sites when they acquired the lease of Talisker House from the MacLeod of MacLeod.

Megrahi was released from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds by the Scottish justice minister ( Kenny MacAskill ) on August 20, 2009, where he was returned to Libya.

The Giant MacAskill Museum, which celebrates the life of Angus Mòr MacAskill was established in 1989 and is managed by Peter MacAskill, father of the street trials cycle rider Danny MacAskill.

On 19 August 2009, it was divulged that MacAskill had reached a decision on the bomber's fate to be announced the following day.

The following day, MacAskill granted his release on compassionate grounds, stating that Megrahi was in the final stages of terminal prostate cancer and was expected to die within three months.

Speaking of the Scottish tradition of justice with compassion and mercy, MacAskill said he was " bound by Scottish values to release him ", and allow him to die in his home country of Libya.

Following the release, doubts were expressed whether Megrahi was as ill as claimed by MacAskill in his statement to the Scottish Parliament.

He is a consultant with political and public relations consultancy Halogen Communications Ltd, as well as J. Chandler & Co., distributor of Buckfast Tonic Wine and has written a number of books including Scotland First: Truth and Consequences ( 2004 ), Global Scots: Voices from Afar ( with Kenny MacAskill ) ( 2006 ) ( published in the UK as Global Scots: Making It in the Modern World ), Wherever the Saltire Flies ( with Kenny MacAskill ) ( 2006 ) and Scotland: The Road Divides ( with Tom Brown ) ( 2007 ).

Berneray is known as the birthplace of the giant Angus MacAskill and for its sandy beaches backed with sand dunes.

He was also known to many as the " Cape Breton Giant " or simply " Giant MacAskill.

Kenneth " Kenny " Wright MacAskill ( born 28 April 1958 ) is the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern, formerly Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007.

After MacAskill became on MSP in 1999 upon the establishment of the Scottish Parliament as a regional list member for the Lothians he moderated his political position, seeing the development of the Scottish Parliament as the most achievable route for Scotland to become an independent nation state.

After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, MacAskill became the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

The Justice Secretary has discretionary authority to order such a release, and MacAskill has taken sole responsibility for the decision.

This resulted in Kenny MacAskill pulling out of the race for deputy and declaring his support for Salmond and Sturgeon, leaving Sturgeon standing against Fergus Ewing and Christine Grahame.

On 4 August 2009, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice in Scotland, Kenny MacAskill, visited Greenock Prison to hear Megrahi's request for a prisoner transfer to Libya.

Dr. Simpson, a former member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons ' prostate cancer working group who specialised in prostate disease research, expressed doubt that Megrahi would die within the next three months and claimed that he could live for eight months, going on to say that, " Kenny MacAskill released him apparently on the advice of just one doctor whose status is not clear and who is not named.

In the summer of 1863 MacAskill undertook a trip to the colonial capital at Halifax where he had been planning to sell produce and purchase stock for his store from the city's wholesalers which he would need for the winter season.

On 7 October 2008, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill announced Sir Muir would succeed Sir Neil McIntosh as Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland.

French sailors apparently taunted MacAskill to lift an anchor lying on the wharf, which was estimated to weigh.

Despite notionally facing a deficit of 550 votes, MacAskill won by over 2000 votes.

While they laboriously bailed their boats, MacAskill set his weight under his half ton boat, tipped it on its beam ends and reportedly emptied the bilge water.

MacAskill faced international pressure from politicians in the United Kingdom and United States, with U. S. victims ’ groups and Syracuse University ( which lost 25 students in the Lockerbie bombing ) all urging him not to release Megrahi.

An altercation with a dancer led to MacAskill striking his tormentor's jaw with his fist.

MacAskill easily did so and walked down the wharf with it, but one of the anchor's flukes caught in one of his shoulders, crippling him.

Shearman rejoined Moxy in late 1979, touring Canada and Texas with Buddy, Terry, and Danny alongside new guitarist Doug MacAskill.

After completing his training at a firm in Glasgow, he set up Erskine MacAskill.

* Kenny MacAskill MSP biography at SNP website

The " Giant MacAskill Museum " was also established in 1989 at Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye and is operated there by a community group ; this museum having several replicated artifacts from the Englishtown museum.

* Angus MacAskill, giant and circus performer.

She defeated him the first time they met, after being introduced by a mutual friend, Don MacAskill.

In 2004, after John Swinney stood down as SNP party leader, Kenny MacAskill backed the joint leadership ticket of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon.

MacAskill won election to a redrawn constituency of Edinburgh Eastern in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.

On 19 August 2009, MacAskill rejected an application by Libya to transfer to their custody Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the Pan Am Flight 103 bomb that killed 270 people, acknowledging that " the American families and Government had an expectation or were led to believe that there would be no prisoner transfer.

" " Immediately after announcing this decision ," however, MacAskill authorised al-Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds.

FBI director Robert Mueller, who had been a lead investigator in the 1988 bombing, wrote a highly critical open letter to MacAskill.

After MacAskill won re-election to the Scottish Parliament in 2011, a Scottish National Party supporter said that the decision had been mentioned by very few voters during the election campaign.