THE TRIPOLI POST: Tripoli— Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan citizen imprisoned for 27 years in a Scottish jail, has called his mother on Wednesday telling her that he hoped to be with her by Ramadan.
The Tripoli Post learned on Thursday during an interview with Megrahi’s Mother and his elder brother that Abdelbaset Ali made a phone call to his mother from his cell in Greenock Prison and said "I hope by Ramadan I will be with you."
Al-Megrahi added on the phone that he was not officially informed of his release, according to his family.
When asked about her feelings that her son may be coming home soon, the 95-year old frail but upbeat Hajja Fatma said "I do not close the house’s door at all. I am expecting him to enter at any moment."
Hajja Fatma has not been informed by the family of her son's terminal illness out of fear that it would cause her much harm at such an old age. Al-Megrahi's mother will only realize the situation when she sees him.
However, she does look healthy and very upbeat but she is in a frail physical condition and has hypertension. Her family decided it would be better for her health if she was not exposed to all the facts.
With tears in her eyes, Hajja Fatma described how she would meet her son after serving over ten years [sic] in prison in England when he arrives: “I would run out to the street and hug him so tight[,]”
When asked about his innocence as far as the Lockerbie bombing is concerned and what would she tell the PanAm’s victims’ relatives, Hajja Fatma said with deep resolve “We told them that my son was innocent, that he would not slaughter a chicken at home and that he would not have caused the disaster of Lockerbie."
"Eleven years I did not spend the holy month of Ramadan with him, I am waiting for that day when he comes back," she added. >>> | Thursday, August 13, 2009
THE TRIPOLI POST: The wife of the Libyan citizen Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, who was unjustly convicted in the Loclerbie bombing, warned on Thursday that he was in danger of dying due to deteriorating cancer.
"His health has considerably deteriorated. He is in danger of dying," Aisha Megrahi told AFP. "The disease has spread across his body."
Megrahi is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years in a British prison for unfairly and unjustly convicted of downing a transatlantic US airliner over the Scottish village of Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 people.
He has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, according to his lawyers, but a Scottish court in November refused to free him on bail because of his health.
Defence lawyers say Megrahi's cancer is in a terminal phase but the Appeal Court in Edinburgh ruled that he could live for years depending on how successful his treatment is.
"While the disease from which the appellant suffers is incurable and may cause his death, he is not at present suffering material pain or disability," Lord Justice General Arthur Hamilton said at the time.
Aisha Megrahi said "they have refused to set him free. It is clear that the British prefer that he dies in jail."
She claimed that her husband "haemorrhaged several times recently."
"His body is not reacting any more to medication because of his bad psychological condition, according to a report by his doctor," she said, adding that she had visited him three times this month alone.
"Hospitals are refusing to admit him because of the exaggerated (police) surveillance involved in transferring him" from prison, she added.
Megrahi's wife said his family's "only wish is that he be transferred to a hospital or to our house in Scotland, so that he can spend what is left of his life with his family." >>> | Friday, August 27, 2009
