Megrahi: misinterpretation, says doctor

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: In a twist to the continuing row over the early release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan spy jailed for life for his role in the 1988 Lockerbie air disaster, one of the doctors whose prognosis formed the basis for the decision by the Scottish government to set him free on compassionate grounds claimed on Sunday that his opinion was misinterpreted.

Professor Karol Sikora, one of the three experts paid by the Libyan government to give an opinion on his condition after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, said his prognosis was wrongly presented as a definitive prediction that Megrahi had only three months to live.

Rejecting the accusation that he succumbed to pressure from Libyan authorities, Professor Sikora said his opinion was based on a “balance of probability” and he never meant the patient was “definitely going to be dead in three months”.

In his first newspaper interview since the controversy erupted over the circumstances of Megrahi's release from a Scottish jail last August, Professor Sikora told The Observer: “When I was asked: ‘Is he likely to die in three months?', my opinion was that he was. If you look at the survival curve, there's about 60 per cent chance of someone being dead in three months, but that doesn't mean he will die in three months. ... What I find difficult is the idea I took the key and let him out. I provided an opinion, others provided an opinion, and someone let him out. That decision of compassionate release is nothing to do with me.”

The fact that a year later Megrahi is still alive has fuelled allegations that his release was prompted by commercial considerations as BP was lobbying for a massive oil drilling contract in Libya at the time and Libyans wanted their man returned home in return.