Navy mentioned in Lockerbie bombing case
January 2nd, 2009 From
>Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 15:44:05 -0700
>From: Mike Potter
>Organization: Artecon, Inc.
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (WinNT; I)
>To: mahan@microworks.net
>Subject: Navy mentioned in Lockerbie bombing case
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>Reply-To: mahan@microworks.net
>
>Scotland offers impartial monitoring for Lockerbie trial
>_______________________________________________________________________
> Copyright © 1997 Nando.net
> Copyright © 1997 The Associated Press
>
>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (October 13, 1997 6:16 p.m. EDT) — In a new
>offer aimed at breaking a deadlock with Libya, Scotland offered Monday
>to let international monitors witness a Scottish trial of two Libyan men
>suspected in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am Flight 103.
>
>Meanwhile, relatives of those killed aboard the plane said they would
>settle for a trial under Scottish law in a neutral country if Libya
>prefers, just to get the court process moving.
>
>Britain and the United States say the two Libyan intelligence agents
>they indicted in 1992 must stand trial in Scotland or the United States.
>But Libya refuses to extradite the men, saying a fair hearing would be
>impossible.
>
>The resulting stalemate has deeply angered the families of the 270
>people killed in the attack on the U.S.-bound flight.
>
>Scotland’s lord advocate, Lord Hardie, made the concession Monday before
>the International Court of Justice. “Justice must be seen to be done,
>and … in this case we are willing to make special arrangements,”
>Hardie said.
>
>Hardie did not give details about his proposal and did not say anything
>to imply the international monitors would have authority during the
>trial.
>
>Libya did not immediately react to Hardie’s offer. Representatives for
>the North African nation are scheduled to lay out their case Friday.
>Libya has refused to hand over Abdel Basset Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa
>Fhimah despite crippling U.N. economic sanctions imposed in 1992.
>
>Lawyers for the United States go before the court’s 16 judges on
>Tuesday. They, along with Britain, contend the court has no jurisdiction
>in the case and should not be involved.
>
>In 1992, Libya brought the case before the United Nations’ highest
>judicial body, hoping it would quash once and for all U.S. and British
>attempts to get the suspects extradited.
>
>Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has in the past offered to allow the
>suspects to stand trial in a third, neutral country before a Scottish
>judge — a move both the United States and Britain have rejected.
>
>The leader of a group called UK Families-Flight 103 said Monday the
>failure to put the suspects on trial has prolonged the suffering of
>victims’ families.
>
>”We are enraged by the fact that it is now nine years ago,” said Dr. Jim
>Swire. “A compromise is required and we accept the compromise of a trial
>under Scottish law in a neutral country.”
>
>Swire’s daughter, Flora, was among the 259 passengers and crew members
>killed in the United Kingdom’s worst terrorist attack. Eleven other
>people died on the ground when the wreckage rained down on Lockerbie.
>
>”This was murder. It’s very difficult for me and my children to see that
>there has been no resolution,” said Stephanie Bernstein of Bethesda,
>Md., a mother of two whose husband — former U.S. Justice Department
>attorney Michael Bernstein — was killed.
>
>”It’s terribly difficult as a family member to see that people are not
>doing what needs to be done, which is to hand over the suspects in the
>crime.”
>
>The FBI, which has the two suspects on its most-wanted list and has
>offered a $4 million reward for information leading to their capture,
>pledged to have them brought to justice.
>
>Libya denies that the suspects were its agents and says they had no role
>in the bombing. It contends that by investigating the case it has
>fulfilled its obligations under the 1971 Montreal Convention on unlawful
>acts against aircraft.
>
>It has asked the court to find the United States and Britain in
>violation of that same treaty for refusing to cooperate with Libyan
>authorities.
>
>Gadhafi has said he will give up the men only if the United States turns
>over the U.S. pilots who carried out a 1986 air raid that Libya says
>killed 37 people, including Gadhafi’s adopted daughter.
>
>Swire sat impassively in the World Court’s wood-paneled chamber Monday,
>hoping for progress toward justice.
>
>”We want to know who murdered those we loved,” he said. “My daughter was
>23. I would like to be walking the moors of the Isle Of Skye where she
>and I spent our holidays, not tramping the streets of The Hague.”
>
>-= END OF MESSAGE =-