Financial Times Monday April 5: Libya- Stage set for trial of Lockerbie suspects
By Gordon Cramb in Amsterdam
Two Scottish prosecutors arrived in the Netherlands
yesterday, as indications grew that Libya was preparing
the immediate despatch of two nationals wanted for
planting the 1988 suitcase bomb which brought down a
PanAm aircraft. The crash of the Boeing 747 at Lockerbie
in Scotland killed 259 on board and 11 on the ground.
It brought the imposition five years later of United
Nations sanctions against Libya - including an air
embargo and foreign assets freeze - which are to be
suspended if the extradition goes ahead.
The Libyan government of Muammer Gadaffi, which said
last month it would deliver the suspects by tomorrow,
invited Arab and other delegations to the capital Tripoli
at the weekend to witness the handover.
The two are to be tried by a Scottish judicial bench
sitting at Camp Zeist, a former US military base east of
the Dutch city of Utrecht. For a decade Libya resisted
western demands that the trial of Abdel Basset Ali
Mohamed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, both
allegedly intelligence agents, should take place in the
UK or US.
The 100 acres (40 hectares) of Camp Zeist allocated to
the hearing will, however, be Scottish soil for the
duration of the procedure, which is thought likely to take
well over a year.
As the two will be charged with murder, Scottish law
requires that a trial begin within 110 days. But either
defence or prosecution can apply to have that time limit
extended, "and that is a very big but", said a Scottish
Office official.
About 100 Scottish police as well as 20 prison officers,
court officials and other staff are already billeted at the
base. The three judges, who will sit without a jury, have
yet to be selected.
The suspects are due to be taken under UN escort to
the Netherlands, where they will be detained by Dutch
police before a formal extradition to Scottish jurisdiction.
Under arrest at Camp Zeist, the two will be held in a
makeshift Scottish police station while bomb-proof cells
are completed.
British officials described the site as "extremely
secure". Another building is being converted into a
courtroom, in an operation which has cost the UK
£750,000 so far. That bill is expected to rise significantly
as the procedure drags on, although Washington has
indicated it will contribute.
As Norman McFadyen and Jim Brisbane, the two public
prosecutors, arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport
yesterday, Ahmed bin Hilli, assistant secretary general
of the Arab League, was on his way to Tripoli. Hans
Corell, chief UN legal counsel, was expected to arrive in
the Libyan capital to arrange the handover. |
