As expected, the Lockerbie release story keeps getting better. Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was released by the government of Scotland on the grounds that he had less than three months to live. This "compassionate release" was cleared by the British Government.
It has been clear for some time that the release was in fact part of a deal worth billions in oil exploration contracts to the British. Prime Minister Gordon Brown vehemently denied that only Wednesday, but now Justice Minister Jack Straw has admitted that there was in fact such a deal.
I noted earlier that the medical opinion on which the decision was based was made by a man with not expertise in terminal prostate cancer. It now turns out that there were three doctors involved, all of them paid by the Libyans. From the London Telegraph:
Medical evidence that helped Megrahi, 57, to be released was paid for by the Libyan government, which encouraged three doctors to say he had only three months to live.
The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time, or less, to live.
This contrasted with findings of doctors in June and July who had concluded that Megrahi had up to 10 months to live, which would have prevented his release…
Professor Karol Sikora, one of the examining doctors and the medical director of CancerPartnersUK in London, told The Sunday Telegraph: "The figure of three months was suggested as being helpful [by the Libyans].
"To start with I said it was impossible to do that [give a three-month life expectancy estimate] but, when I looked at it, it looked as though it could be done – you could actually say that." He said that he and a second doctor, a Libyan, had legitimately then estimated Megrahi's life expectancy as "about three months". A third doctor would say only that he had a short time to live.
This weekend it was reported that Megrahi was moved out of an emergency care unit in Tripoli.
Don't you just love these lines:
"To start with I said it was impossible to do that [give a three-month life expectancy estimate] but, when I looked at it, it looked as though it could be done – you could actually say that."
Can't you almost hear the suitcase full of Euros flipping open, and someone scooping up wads of bills rubber banded together? How big a pile a cash did it take before the doctor could "actually say" what the Libyans wanted him to say?
What is wrong with these people? If you are going to try to pull what the Brown Government tried in this case, couldn't you at least find a bleedin' middle man between the Libyans and the medi-stooge? I mean the guy was National Health Service, right? Is the Brown Government really so broke it couldn't bribe him itself?
This has all the makings of a musical. But now a man who murdered two hundred and seventy people is out on the streets in Tripoli. The scores better be really good.
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