Medical experts challenge prognosis for Lockerbie bomber

WASHINGTON - Scotland's prognosis that the Lockerbie bomber had three months to live was not justified, medical experts told Congress yesterday, and a senator questioned whether the process was deliberately manipulated to pave the way for the bomber's release from prison last year.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi served eight years of a life sentence for the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing over Lockerbie, which killed all 259 people on board, most of them Americans, and 11 people on the ground. Suffering from advanced prostate cancer, al-Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds in August 2009 by Scotland's government. He returned to Libya, outraging people on both sides of the Atlantic. He is still alive.

"The release on compassionate grounds was deeply, deeply flawed and perhaps even intentionally skewed to allow for al-Megrahi's release," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairing a Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

The panel is investigating whether the British-based oil company BP had sought his freedom to help get a $900-million exploration agreement with Libya off the ground. Senators have been rebuffed in attempts to get outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward to testify.

The medical experts said a man who had only three months to live wouldn't have been able to walk up and down stairs without assistance, as al-Megrahi did last year when boarding a plane for Libya and then disembarking to a hero's welcome.

Menendez said his investigative staffer uncovered conflicting accounts of al-Megrahi's treatment prior to his release. He also said the prognosis was made by al-Megrahi's primary care physician, who didn't have the expertise to determine how advanced the cancer was.

The Scottish government rebutted both claims.

"The senator's staffer has got both these issues entirely wrong, and the Senate committee is misinformed - we wrote to the committee yesterday informing them of these errors when we became aware of them, and expressing our extreme disappointment," the government said in a statement.

The prognosis was made by Dr. Andrew Fraser, director of health and care of the Scottish Prison Service, the statement said, and that Fraser "is a professional of impeccable integrity."