UPDATED: July 10, 2010

The doctor who diagnosed Abdelbaset al-Megrahi with terminal cancer last August, which led to his release from prison on compassionate grounds, has recently told British newspapers he is embarrassed al-Megrahi is still living almost a year later.

Al-Megrahi is the only person convicted for the 1988 terrorist bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, 35 of them Syracuse University students traveling home from semesters abroad. He was released from a Scottish prison to his home in Libya last August after serving only eight years of his life sentence because a doctor claimed he had only three months to live.

‘From day one last year when he was released, we knew it was a sham, and he was probably going to live more than the three months,’ said Bob Hunt, the father of Karen Hunt, one of the SU students who died in the attack.

Al-Megrahi has lived almost eight months after he was expected to die. Many are questioning whether the release was part of a political deal between Britain and Libya and whether Karol Sikora, the doctor who diagnosed al-Megrahi, was urged to diagnose him with only three months to live.

‘It was clear that three months was what they were aiming for, three months was the critical point,’ Sikora recently told The Sunday Times in London. ‘On the balance of probabilities I felt like I could sort of justify (that).’

Sikora told The Sunday Times there is even a chance al-Megrahi could live for up to 10 more years.

Peter Lowenstein, whose son Alexander, another SU student, died in the attack, also said he felt from the beginning the release was part of a deal.

‘The only doctor that seemed to really assign his name to the fact that he had 90 days was a doctor hired by the Libyan’s to do the medical exam,’ he said. ‘All the others that examined him refused to make their statements, so it was a very poorly contrived deal right from the start.’

The Libyan government presented the Scottish government with Sikora’s findings and that of two other experts before al-Megrahi was released, The Sunday Times reported. Sikora is the only doctor of those contacted by The Sunday Times to say he endorsed the three month life expectancy.

A group of U.S. congressmen, including senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), signed a letter Wednesday to the British Ambassador to the United States urging further investigation into al-Megrahi’s release.

‘Unfortunately, allegations are circulating in the media that the release may have been motivated by political and business considerations. If true, this would significantly undermine the ability of countries that practice the rule of law to bring future terrorists to justice,’ the letter read.

Both Hunt and Lowenstein said they are not expecting anything serious to come of the senators’ request for further investigation.

‘There are murderers that die in prison every day. You don’t let them go home to enjoy the remainder of their lives, whether it be three months or 10 years,’ Hunt said. ‘Both the governments of Scotland and of Great Britain should be ashamed of themselves.’

kronayne@syr.edu

 

Published on July 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm