Cancer specialists 'not consulted' over Megrahi release

By politics.co.uk staff

Four cancer specialists closely involved in the treatment of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi have said they were not consulted before his release.

Megrahi was released under the orders of Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds, on the basis that he had three months to live. The case has prompted anger in Washington and London.

The Sunday Times reported today that one expert said he was "surprised" at not being asked for his advice when Megrahi was freed in August last year.

"I was surprised when I heard he was being released, because I wasn't really asked for my opinion... it's a bit odd," Zak Latif, the bomber's urologist in Scotland, told the newspaper.

None of the experts signed off on the prognosis that the man had three months to live, it was reported.

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