Lockerbie bomber expected to live for two more years, Libyan official says
Libyan officials have said that the Lockerbie bomber is now expected to live for another two years with the help of treatment from regime's best doctors. By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Published: 9:14PM BST 19 Aug 2010 Daily Telegraph Col Mummar Gaddafi, the Libyan <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/> leader, has decreed that Abedelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, a former intelligence agent, must receive the same level of medical care as afforded to state leaders. High level Libyan officials told The Daily Telegraph that Megrahi is expected to live for at least two years, despite his release <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6060931/Lockerbi e-bomber-released-and-to-return-to-Libya-a-free-man.html> a year ago by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds that he had only three months to live. On Friday, Megrahi's family are expected to mark the first anniversary of his return, from a prison sentence in Scotland for the mass murder of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103, quietly at the home. Officials said his wife, mother, five sons and brothers, plan to gather for an Iftar meal to break the fast marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The state media has been told to show pictures of Megrahi's return to mark the occasion. He has recently begun second stage chemotherapy for prostate cancer. A Libyan official on Col Gaddafi's staff said: "Megrahi is getting personal attention from the best doctors and [Gaddafi] has authorised his own attendants to supervise the cancer treatment at Tripoli Medical Centre." Doctors have been ordered to procure the latest generation of cancer treating drugs from America and have earned Col Gaddafi's personal praise for their efforts. "The brother leader is very happy with Megrahi's progress since his return home to Libya," the official said. "He was very weak when he returned and the doctors gave him a very severe treatment regime. To be truthful it nearly killed Brother Megrahi but it was very successful." "When he recovered from the side effects, the cancer had really been reduced very strongly but now it is time for a new course of treatment. Unfortunately this was inevitable." When not under going trice weekly treatments at the Tripoli Medical Centre, Megrahi spends his days on a hospital bed at home in Tripoli's upmarket Damascus district surrounded by the trappings of the privileged elite. He lives in a large villa which is under 24-hour guard and there is normally a Humvee, white Toyata Land Cruiser and BMW 7 series in the yard. The Megrahi family has thrived as a result of his notoriety - in addition to the spacious villa in central Tripoli, Megrahi's sons have been granted lucrative jobs in the government. Megrahi has not been seen since he met with a delegation of African MPs last September. Professor Roger Kirby, a consultant urologist at St George's Hospital in London said the decision to release Megrahi was wrong in light of the new treatments. He said: "We know that patients can survive 18, 24, 36 months longer as a result of these treatments." However, Grahame Howard, a consultant oncologist, who was one of four advisers to the Scottish Prison Service has issued a statement defending the prognosis that Megrahi had just three months life expectancy. He said: "The background medical portion of that application is a fair reflection of the specialist advice available at the time." Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice secretary, said it was undeniable that Megrahi was terminably ill as he offered to meet US senators investigating the decision at his Edinburgh office. "If US senators come across and they seek a meeting with me, I'll be more than happy to try and provide it. I did meet with congressmen back in February, indeed the door is always open," he said. Megrahi was jailed in 2001, he was released from custody on August 20, 2009 after his diagnosis of terminal cancer. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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