Lockerbie bomber Megrahi's health seen worsening
Medical report says his cancer has spread
Concern for the health of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the Libyan sentenced to life in prison for the Lockerbie bombing, grew in Tripoli yesterday after a medical report said his cancer had spread.
"A scan has shown a worsening of the disease which has spread more than before," said the bulletin from the Tripoli Medical Centre where Mr Megrahi is being treated for terminal cancer.
The bulletin received by AFP was the first since Mr Megrahi, 57, was repatriated to Libya in August following his controversial release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds.
Mr Megrahi arrived at the hospital on Saturday coughing and vomiting, the statement said. He was also suffering from "secondary effects of the sessions of chemotherapy" that he has been undergoing, including a weight gain, high blood pressure and sugar in the blood along with muscular fatigue.
"His condition was examined on Saturday by a team of European experts who agreed on the continuation of chemotherapy sessions while also administering other medicaments to treat the disease," the hospital said in its first bulletin released since Mr Megrahi's controversial return in August.
Last week the Scottish authorities charged with supervising the Lockerbie bomber said they had contacted him in Tripoli on Wednesday, following concerns about his whereabouts.
Under the terms of his release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds, Mr Megrahi cannot leave Tripoli or change his address and must keep in regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council.
They were unable to contact the Libyan on Tuesday, while The Times newspaper could not track him down at either his house or the hospital where the terminal prostate cancer sufferer has had treatment.
"We have now spoken to Mr Megrahi, who is in his house. There is no cause for alarm, he is in his house," said a spokesman for East Renfrewshire Council in western Scotland.
Mr Megrahi is the only person convicted over the December 1988 bombing of a New York-bound Pan Am Boeing 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which killed 270 people.