[I am grateful to frequent and valued commentator blogiston for drawing my attention to this report in the Scottish tabloid newspaper the Sunday Mail. It reads in part:]
The Lockerbie bomber’s doctors are trying to cure his cancer, we can reveal.
Senior government sources have told the Sunday Mail that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s treatment was now focused on “cure rather than containment”.
His family said yesterday that he believes he will live to see his name cleared for the 1988 attack on Pan Am Flight 103 above Lockerbie which killed 270 people.
The former Libyan intelligence officer is now splitting his time between his home in the capital Tripoli’s New Damascus suburb and the Tripoli Medical Centre.
A Libyan government source said: “He has amazed everyone with his recovery but is now spending more time in hospital.
“That is because doctors are now more focused on cure, rather than containment.”
A spokesman at the centre declined to comment. (...)
His family said last month that they hoped for a “miracle cure”.
Yesterday, they said he remained in a frail condition but admitted they had increased hope for his long-term prospects.
A spokesman for the family said: “Brother al-Megrahi’s mind is as sharp as ever and he’s putting all of his efforts into clearing his name of this terrible crime.
“The fight for innocence is his absolute passion and all he wants to do is win it.
“He is becoming more and more confident that he can do this and is being given 100 per cent support.”
His brother Abdelnasser said: “He is better but suffering ups and downs, just like any other patient.
“There have been some days which have been very worrying indeed but he is hopeful.”
Megrahi regularly meets legal advisers and government officials who are helping him to examine every detail of the Lockerbie case.
The family spokesman added: “All kind of new evidence is coming to light.
“Much of it will be made public by Brother al-Megrahi when he believes the time is right.”
Megrahi, the only person convicted in connection with the Lockerbie bombing, is viewed as a national hero in Libya.
Many believe his conviction directly led to Britain and the US lifting economic sanctions on the former pariah state.
Earlier this month, Megrahi was visited by Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the terrorist attack.
The 74-year-old retired GP, who believes Megrahi is innocent, said: ‘‘I think one of the reasons he has lived so long is that he has had good treatment in Libya and he has been returned to his family and his community and his country.”
Last night, a spokeswoman for the Scottish government said: “Megrahi was sent home to die on the basis of expert medical advice and he remains terminally ill with incurable prostate cancer.
“As the First Minister said in his letter to US Senators of August 6, ‘the fact remains that Megrahi is dying of cancer’ – and any claims to the contrary are entirely without foundation.”
MISSION LOCKERBIE:
ReplyDeleteMr Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi's Sentenced is a Grievous Miscarriage of Scottish Justice and carries the responsibility for its illness !
MEBO do not forget: The ex political hostage and "Lockerbie victim 271" Mr. Al Megrahi, suffering since April 6th, 1999 until August 20th, 2009,
315'560'000 painful seconds (near 10 years) innocent in scottish prisons...
The sentence was not a surprise for many experts, who denounced the injustice of this verdict. Robert Black, a law professor of the University of Edinburgh, said that “no reasonable tribunal could have convicted Megrahi on the evidence led,” and called his conviction “an absolute and utter outrage.”
Hans Köchler, a UN-appointed observer at the trial, stated that “there is not one single piece of material evidence linking the two accused to the crime,” and condemned the court’s verdict as a “spectacular miscarriage of justice.” In fact, the verdict was issued although there was no evidence to support the accusation that Megrahi had put a suitcase with the lethal bomb in an Air Malta plane in Malta, so it would eventually be transferred to Flight 103 in London.
A piece of evidence presented by US and British Investigators was the MST-13 timer used in the bomb. Discovery of a fragment of the timer helped in the construction of an circumstantial chain that implicated him. This was the basis for Megrahi’s conviction. It was supposed to have been discovered months after the crash, in a shirt found many miles from the wreckage
(Parts from a article published, uprooted Palestinian)
by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO ltd., Switzerland
URL: www.lockerbie.ch