A doctor who said the man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 had only three months to live now says the Libyan could survive another 10 years, London’s Sunday Times reported.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of 270 counts of murder for being behind the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, was released on compassionate grounds in 2009, after doctors said he only had a few months to live.

Specialist Karol Sikora told the newspaper it was “embarrassing” that al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer and received a hero’s welcome upon his return to Libya, had managed to outlive the prognosis. 

The report is sure to re-ignite accusations that Scottish authorities bowed to pressure from Libya and the British government to release al-Megrahi, who American officials accuse of being an officer of the Libyan intelligence service.

“There is always a chance that he would live for 10 years … but it’s very unusual,” Sikora told the Times.

“There was a 50 percent chance that he would die in three months,” he added, “but there was also a 50 percent chance that he would live longer.”

While at the time of his release the Scottish government sited “firm consensus” among medical experts over al-Megrahi’s condition, that agreement does not appear to exist, according to the newspaper.

Eight people involved in the case now “suggest” that the Scottish government and Libyan officials selectively chose their information, the Sunday Times reported.

According to an earlier Sunday Times report, a former British justice secretary wrote to his counterpart in Scotland that it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make it possible for al-Megrahi to return to Libya.

(Source: MSNBC)