 Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi with his mother and daughter |
The condition of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan sentenced tolife imprisonment for the Lockerbie bombing who was repatriated in August, has deteriorated and his cancer has spread through his body, according to a medical report.
“A scan has shown a worsening of the disease which has spread more than before,” said a medical bulletin released by the Tripoli Medical Centre, where al-Megrahi is being treated for terminal cancer.
The bulletin said al-Megrahi, 57, arrived at the hospital on Saturday coughing and vomiting.
He was also suffering from the effects of the chemotherapy that he has been undergoing, including weight gain, high blood pressure and sugar in the blood, as well as muscular fatigue.
“His condition was examined Saturday by a team of European experts who agreed on the continuation of chemotherapy sessions while also administering other medicaments to treat the disease,” the hospital said in its first bulletin released since al-Megrahi’s return to Libya in August.
Last week The Times raised the alarm about al-Megrahi’s whereabouts after visiting his home and hospital in Tripoli, and being told that he was at neither.
Jonathan Hinds, East Renfrewshire’s criminal justice manager, telephoned him but was told that he was too ill to speak. On Tuesday morning Mr Hinds called again. This time he was allowed to talk to al-Megrahi, but Scottish opposition politicians said that did not prove that the former Libyan intelligence officer was at home.
Under the terms of his release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds, al-Megrahi cannot leave Tripoli or change his address and must keep in regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council.
“We have now spoken to Mr Megrahi, who is in his house. There is no cause for alarm, he is in his house,” said a spokesman for East Renfrewshire Council in western Scotland.
Al-Megrahi is the only person convicted over the December 1988 bombing of a New York-bound Pan Am Boeing 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which killed 270 people.
He was freed on August 20 after doctors said he had only three months to live, and returned to a hero’s welcome in Libya, angering relatives of those killed.
His release also caused tensions between Britain, the Scottish Government and the United States and prompted questions about Britain’s growing trade relationship with Tripoli.
