Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Lockerbie Bomber’s Family Reject Deteriorating Health Report | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- The family of Libyan Abdul-Basit al-Miqrahi, who was given a life in jail sentence after the Lockerbie attack and returned to Libya in August after cancer spread in his body, have denied reports of deterioration in his health and his evacuation to Tripoli Medical Center after suffering from nausea and the spread of more cancerous tumors in his body.

Relatives of his and persons treating him said in a contact with Asharq Al-Awsat yesterday that he was at home and his health was stable, adding that his visits to the medical center “are a routine measure.”

Al-Miqrahi, 57 years old, was convicted of involvement in the bombing of a Pan American plane in 1988, in which 270 persons were killed, the majority of them Americans. The Scottish authorities released him on 20 August for health reasons after his prostrate cancer reached its final stages and he was returned to Libya.

While members of Al-Miqrahi’s family who asked to remain unidentified informed Asharq Al-Awsat that he was at home, Abdul-Hamid al-Miqrahi, Abdul-Basit’s cousin, said he was in fact at home and his general health was stable and denied that the deterioration of his health forced them to take him to the Tripoli Medical Center or any other one.

A member of the medical team treating him said his visits to the center “are a routine measure to which he is subjected from time to time” so as to check the developments in his health and the extent of his response to treatment. He refused to provide any further information about his health at present and said only “his health condition is stable.”