The Scottish justice secretary will be forced to defend his decision to release the Lockerbie bomber as the Scottish Parliament is recalled. Opposition parties will demand to know how Kenny MacAskill aims to repair the damage they claim has been done to Scotland's global reputation. He has been under huge pressure after granting early release to terminally-ill Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. Mr MacAskill will make a statement to parliament and be questioned by MSPs. The parliament will reconvene at 1430 BST on Monday. Megrahi was freed after receiving a life sentence imposed in 2001 for his conviction for the UK's worst terrorist atrocity, which claimed 270 lives in 1988. International standing The 57-year-old, who has prostate cancer, returned home to Libya on Thursday to jubilant scenes which included people waving Scottish flags. Scottish ministers said their decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds - which has been strongly criticised by the US government - followed due process and was the right one. As the Scottish Parliament was preparing to cut short its summer break to discuss the issue, Scotland's opposition politicians urged Mr MacAskill to set out how he intends to improve Scotland's international standing in the wake of the criticism. They also insisted he must reveal whether any deals were done "behind the scenes" in relation to the early release, and address claims Megrahi was pressurised into his decision to drop the appeal against his conviction. The Scottish National Party administration has maintained Scotland has a strong relationship with the US, which did not always depend on the two countries coming to agreement. Ministers said they understood the upset, but were duty-bound to take the right decision in the eyes of the Scottish legal system. US president Barack Obama and FBI boss Robert Mueller have both hit out at Mr MacAskill's decision. Tom Rivers, ABC's radio correspondent in the UK, said it was "highly unusual" for the director of the FBI to talk about political issues. "Mueller was an assistant Attorney General in the early 90s, looking at specifically the Lockerbie case, so it was very close and personal from his point of view. "And that is being felt across the board in America. "You've got American websites saying unless Britain does something there's talk of a boycott of British and Scottish goods, and also urging people not to come to Britain on tourist trips." 'Grave error' There has also been an angry reaction from some of the families of the 189 Americans killed in the bombing. Scotland's former Labour first minister, Jack McConnell, said the decision was a "grave error of judgment", although Henry McLeish, who served as a Labour first minister at the time Megrahi was convicted, said Mr MacAskill's conclusion was the right one. This opinion was shared by Professor Alan Miller, head of the Scottish Human Rights Commission. However, he said the final decision about the detention or release of prisoners should not be left in the hands of politicians. "I think it's regrettable that the decision and decision-making process has become so unnecessarily politicised," he said. He called for parliament to change the legal system to ensure that future decisions were left with a court or other independent body. The Scottish Parliament, which had not been due back in Edinburgh from summer recess until the start of September, has only been recalled on two previous occasions in its 10-year history. These came following the deaths of former First Minister Donald Dewar in 2000 and the Queen Mother in 2002. Source: BBC