Hopes High for Libya Keeping Word
UNITED NATIONS (AP) April 1 - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he is still hopeful Libya will keep its promise and hand over two suspects in the 1988 bombing of an American jetliner by April 6.
''I think we've done lots of work, and I believe that there are signs that everybody's acting in good faith, and that they will be turned over,'' Annan told reporters at U.N. headquarters.
The Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of the Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, claimed 270 lives, most of them Americans. Two Libyans, believed to be intelligence agents, are suspected of having planted a bomb in a suitcase on board the plane.
After months of seeking clarification and assurances from the United Nations, Libya agreed March 19 to turn the men over by Tuesday for a trial under Scottish law in The Netherlands.
The United States and Britain agreed in August to a trial in a third country after Libya complained that the men wouldn't get a fair trial in either U.S. or British courts.
Details of the turnover are being kept strictly confidential - so much so that the United Nations isn't expected to announce it has taken place until after the men have left Libya.
A U.N. envoy, believed to be Annan's legal counsel, Hans Corell, is expected to accompany the men to the Netherlands.
Once they arrive, U.N. sanctions imposed in 1992 to compel Tripoli to turn the men over will be automatically suspended.
The Security Council has pledged to lift sanctions entirely ''as soon as circumstances permit.''
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