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Lockerbie families angered as Megrahi survives
[Al Arabiya Latest] The regrets of a cancer expert who assessed the only man ever convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie jetliner bombing have intensified the anger felt by victims' relatives over Scotland's decision to release the Libyan on compassionate grounds.Professor Karol Sikora and other experts had said Abdel Baset al-Megrahi probably had only three months to live when he was freed from a Scottish jail last August and allowed to return home to Libya. But one year later, Al-Megrahi, who is being treated for prostate cancer, is still alive. Sikora, one of three experts who assessed al-Megrahi's health for Libyan authorities, was quoted by Britain's Observer newspaper Sunday as saying he should have been more cautious about the chances of survival. "If I could go back in time, I would have probably been more vague and tried to emphasize the statistical chances and not hard fact," Sikora was quoted as saying. "In medicine we say 'Never say never and never say always,' because funny things happen. All you can do is give a statistical opinion," said Sikora, dean of the School of Medicine at Buckingham University, in central England. Which is why we don't like to say that a man has but three months unless we're pretty darned (as in, 99.9%) sure. You sir, were not that sure, yet you proffered an opinion regardless. Hate to ask this of a brethren doc, but what were you offered? Scottish authorities deny that the opinions of Sikora and the other experts who advised Libya entered into the decision to release al-Megrahi, though families contend that the advice must have played a role. Did any of those 'authorities' lose their jobs yet? No? "It's obvious the whole thing was flawed," said Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, an advocacy group that represents some of the families of those killed. Posted by: Fred 2010-08-16 |
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