More like this
Free for a year, Megrahi ‘could live another two’
The Mole: There’s another anniversary coming on Oct 28 - will the US senators get their inquiry by then?
Today marks the first anniversary of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's release from jail in Scotland - the day Col Gaddafi's son Saif flew him home from Glasgow airport to a hero's welcome in Tripoli - and all the parties involved are issuing predictable statements.
In London, the Foreign Office has urged the Libyan authorities not to allow the sort of insensitive celebrations that greeted Megrahi's return in 2009.
"Any repetition of these celebrations this year would be completely unacceptable," said a statement from the FO. "Megrahi remains a convicted terrorist responsible for the worst act of terrorism in British history."
From Tripoli, comes news that Col Gaddafi has "decreed" that Megrahi must receive the same level of medical care that he, as the country's leader, would receive himself.
[TIMER:14]
Reports in today's London papers claim that, as a result, Megrahi is getting the latest generation of chemotherapy drugs from the US which are so effective that he could live for quite a while yet.
The Telegraph account gives him another two years, while the Guardian gives him seven. The paper quotes Ashour Shamis, editor of the Akhbar Libya website, saying: "They are looking after him very well. He has 24-hour care in his home and wherever he goes he has doctors with him. I have been told by someone reliable that a medical source in Tripoli says Megrahi could live for up to seven years."
Quite why anyone would take any notice of a new prognosis - bearing in mind every cancer specialist in the country has now made it clear it's a questionable art - is another matter.
Meanwhile, Megrahi is expected to spend today quietly with his wife and sons, while the state media re-broadcast the TV images of his welcome a year ago. But given Col Gaddafi's love of a PR opportunity, anything could happen.
In Washington, Senator Robert Menendez and three other senators from New York and New Jersey - home to the majority of the 190 Americans who died at Lockerbie - have reiterated their call for an independent inquiry into how Megrahi was wrongly given only three months to live.
In Edinburgh, justice minister Kenny MacAskill refuses to change his tune. He says he took the decision to free Megrahi on purely compassionate grounds and the convicted bomber is simply lucky to be alive. The three-months prognosis on which he based his decision to free Megrahi was, MacAskill insists, a "reasonable estimate".
As The First Post reported yesterday, First Minister Alex Salmond went further and said he had no intention of asking the Libyans to return Megrahi to Scotland to resume his sentence.
At least the US Senators are receiving some sympathy in Edinburgh - from opposition MPs.
Speaking on the eve of today's anniversary, Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray asked: "How much compassion did his government show to the American relatives of the 270 people killed at Lockerbie?"
Murdo Fraser, the Conservatives' deputy leader, has called for a full disclosure of the facts surrounding Megrahi's release - just what Menendez and his colleagues are seeking.
Where will this end? The Mole's view is that, given the recent evidence that specialists who treated Megrahi were not consulted over the three-month prognosis, there has to be an investigation.
As The First Post's handy 'lie detector' clock shows (inset), there is another first-year anniversary coming up - on October 28. That is the day when, if Megrahi is still with us, he will have outlived his three-month prognosis by exactly a year.
If the American senators haven't got their inquiry by then, don't be surprised to see a US carrier battle group massing in the Firth of Forth. ·
Comments are now closed on this article
Comments
If the man had been guilty as charged, it MIGHT would be different--although it is SCOTS law that prevails here which includes Compassionate release (compassion being a concept totally unheard of in US law). But this had to be one of the dirtiest trials in history with massive dishonesty and bribery as well as important evidence concealed by the governments of the US and the UK.
Why aren't these Senators calling for an honest trial???
Makes you wonder, doesn't it.
It would be egg on the face if the new evidence were allowed to prove Megrahi innocence. Easy to understand the compassion in releasing him and the welcome home.
This article only proves three points that (a) given advanced care a person even with cancer might be able live for many years, (b) nobody can predict when one is going to die and (c) UK and USA both have much to learn in the changed world that they have no God given right to order other people around.
If Megrahi remained in prison, would Scottish authorities ever provided him with the care he is getting in Libya? Please don't start this rubbish about him being the terrorst bomber who brought down Pan AM 103. Was he tried in Scotland in front of a jury? He was tried in Holland in a kangaroo court. Why was not he tried in front of a jury in Scotland.
Even assuming his guilt, he was serving a sentence. It was obligatory for the government of Scotland to give him necessary care which they of course did not provide.
Colonel Gadaffi is right in decreeing that Megrahi should get as much care as he himself would get. That's called leadership. He did not wash his hand of Megrahi. Will Blair or Brown or Obama ever say that for any soldiers they sent to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan or any of their spookes operating all over the world? I don't think so.
As for celebration, Libyan government did not have to make any arrangement to have so many people to welcome Megrahi back to Libya.
Actually Libyan government was surprised that so many turned up. They had to put extra security while the pain waited in the tarmac for a long time.
It might be very difficult for people in the Western world particularly in the USA and UK, where you may have thousands of friends on Facebook but even five will not show up when you come home or need them, to understand Megrahi's welcome. If only his relatives and friends came to welcome him back their number could have exceeded several hundreds.
Isnt it time Mr Megrahi and Libya were given a break from all this media Horse-Shit. Its done and all you are becoming is another vehicle for opportunistic political hysteria on the part of the US Senators. They should really get out more and direct their efforts at the White House and the political trial verdict. If any new enquiry is needed the latter should be the subject. I hope Mr Megrahi lives longer than the current expectations
I don't recall a Senate enquiry into the shooting down of an Iranian airliner only a few months before. Indeed, wasn't the captain of the warship decorated for his bravery in killing 290 men women and children?
Nor do I remember any compassion or expression of sympathy from the senators or any other American public figure for the victims of that merciless slaughter.
Megrahi is probably innocent anyway. There was sufficient new evidence available for his case to be deemed worthy of a new appeal. Had that appeal gone ahead, the court would have heard testimony of witness bribery and dubious forensic evidence. Conveniently for all concerned, Megrahi had to drop his appeal so that he could be released on compassionate grounds.
I am horrified by talk of compassion. We should NEVER show compassion to a multiple murder, NEVER.
The uncertainty surrounding Megrahi's (real) guilt and the high probability he would not live long enough to go through an appeal seemed good reasons for his release (though not the actual reasons).
Mr Megrahi was gaoled for life; his days are numbered and we have shown compassion.
In comparison whilst Americans have plenty of compassion for their own nationals they have absolutely none for anyone else as the current extradition cases of Mr McKinnon and lately Mr Tappin indicate.
The Americans certainly can't come to terms with not getting their own way, can they?