Doctor paid by Libya did not influence Megrahi's release

The Scottish government has denied a claim by a leading cancer specialist - paid by the Libyan government - that his medical assessment helped to free the Lockerbie bomber.

Dr Karol Sikora visited Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in Greenock prison on July 28 and assessed that he had less than three months to live because of prostate cancer.

Dr Sikora said: “The Libyans ... wanted their own independent view which is fair enough. We were told that if we made it less than 3 months that would be helpful.” (...)

The government said yesterday that the decision to release al-Megrahi was made on the basis of other medical advice and that the opinion of three doctors paid by the Libyan Government, including Dr Sikora, was not taken into consideration.

A Scottish government spokesman said that al-Megrahi's defence team had submitted their evidence on the extent of his illness too late for it to be included in Mr MacAskill's considerations. (...)

A spokesman for the Scottish government said that although Dr Sikora may have submitted his report to his clients at the end of July it was not received by the SNP administration until August 18 by which time Mr MacAskill had already studied a medical report on al-Megrahi by the Scottish Prison Service's director of health, Andrew Fraser, which took into account the views of a range of specialists.

“These included two consultant oncologists, two consultant urologists and a number of other specialists, including a palliative care team, who had reviewed and contributed to the clinical management of the patient,” the spokesman added.

“They did not include Karol Sikora ..., whose assessment played no part in considerations.”

[The above is from a report in The Times.]