[Al Arabiya Latest] The condition of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan sentenced to life imprisonment for the Lockerbie bombing and repatriated in August, has deteriorated and the cancer that afflicts him has spread through his body, a medical bulletin said early Sunday. "A scan has shown a worsening of the disease which has spread more than before," said the bulletin from the Tripoli Medical Center where Megrahi is being treated for terminal cancer.The bulletin received by AFP said Megrahi, 57, arrived at the hospital on Saturday coughing and vomiting.
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.
| Or, he was bled, had his head shaved and was given cotton-candy to eat just before the blood draw ... |
| No doubt in the very near future that fine team of Europeans will step up to the television cameras to report for themselves, thus settling any doubts about the truth of the hospital bulletin. |
Under the terms of his release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds, 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.
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.
He was freed on Aug. 20 after doctors said he had only three months to live, and returned to a hero's welcome in Libya, who support Megrahi's claims that he was wrongly accused and is innocent of the Lockerbie bombing.