THE cancer doc who gave the Lockerbie bomber just three months to live admitted last night his prediction had been EMBARRASSING.
Professor Karol Sikora – whose prognosis helped get Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi released – has now confessed the killer could live another 20 years.
Lockerbie Bomber is hugged by his mother and daughter at home in Tripoli, Libya the day after his release from Scotland
The medical director of CancerPartners UK – who was paid £200 an hour for his services – assessed Megrahi for the Libyan authorities. The bomber was allowed home after being freed on compassionate grounds last August – and is still alive.
Last night Mr Sikora said: “It is embarrassing that he’s gone on for so long.
“There was always a chance that he would live for 10 years, 20 years – but it’s very unusual.”
Mr Sikora was drafted in by the Libyans to examine Megrahi.
His prognosis was instrumental in getting him freed on compassionate grounds – and the killer was given a sickening hero’s welcome on his return to Libya.
But Mr Sikora blundered again in April – saying Megrahi would die in four weeks.
Last night the professor denied the Libyans had put him under pressure.
But he admitted: “It was clear three months was what they were aiming for. Three months was the critical point. On the balance of probabilities I felt I could sort of justify (that).
“There’s a 50 per cent chance he’d die in three months, but there was also a 50 per cent chance that he would live longer.”
The revelations put another question mark over Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill’s decision to release Megrahi last August.
Mr MacAskill had insisted there was “firm consensus” that the 58-year-old would die in three months – but it emerged the views of other experts who gave Megrahi at least 19 months were allegedly ignored.
The news was greeted with fury by families of the 270 people killed when Pan Am flight 103 exploded in 1988.
Eileen Monetti, from New Jersey, US, whose son Rick, 20, died, said: “It’s outrageous. His release was obviously rigged.”
Megrahi is currently living his wife and five adult children in New Damascus.
Sources close to Megrahi’s family said: “He’s extremely sick. The cancer has spread to his kidneys, liver, pelvis and lymph nodes.”
