Did Scotland distort Al-Megrahis medical report?
Scottish prison officials say their decision to release Al-Megrahi was based on predictions by oncologists that he would die soon; Scotland’s compassion laws allow prisoners to go home if they have just a few months left to live. But on Aug. 16 news reports quoted several oncologists who had seen Al-Megrahi in prison denying that they had given him only three months to live. Scottish officials have refused to release their full medical report, but the censored version published online reveals that Al-Megrahi’s imminent death was hardly a sure thing. In the fall of 2008 albeit before Al-Megrahi’s condition deteriorated oncologists gave the prisoner’s chances for survival “an informal mid-estimate of 18-24 months.” How that prognosis whittled down to three months remains a mystery. (See a profile of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi.) Did Scottish officials persuade Al-Megrahi to drop his legal appeal before going home? With no explanation, Al-Megrahi dropped his appeal against his conviction
