05 November 1999
(Trial for Pan Am 103 suspects to be "Scottish trial of the century") (640) By Rick Marshall Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- A team of law professors from the University of Glasgow in Scotland have established the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit to provide expert information on the upcoming trial of two Libyans who are suspected of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. The explosion killed all 259 of the flight's crew and passengers as well as 11 people on the ground in the town of Lockerbie, Scotland. The flight was en route from London to New York. The two suspects, Abdelbaset Ali Mohammed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, have been charged with three counts: murder, conspiracy to murder and contravention of the Aviating Security Act of 1982. For years Libya refused to surrender the men, only doing so this year after several years of international sanctions and a decision by the United Nations Security Council to accept a proposal to hold the trial in a neutral country. As it turned out, the trial will take place in the Netherlands beginning in February. It will be conducted under Scottish law by a panel of three Scottish judges. "The trial will be the international trial of the decade, but it will be the Scottish trial of the century," according to Professor John Grant of the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit. "It involves allegations of the largest mass murder in Scottish legal history. It will be the first occasion that a Scottish criminal court has sat abroad. It will be the first time that charges of this seriousness have been heard without a jury. It will probably be the longest and most expensive trial in Scottish legal history." "But, in a sense, all these 'firsts' do not matter," Grant wrote in the handbook which the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit is distributing. "What is important is that those thought responsible for the tragic loss of 270 lives should be brought to trial: the families of those who perished in Lockerbie in 1988 deserve no less. And it is equally important that two suspects have their day in court; if they are not responsible for the tragedy, then they deserve to have their names cleared and to be released." The two Libyans were served their formal indictments on October 29th. According to Clare Connelly, a specialist in Scotland's criminal law, they cannot be convicted of more than one of the three charges upon which they were indicted. The punishment for both murder and contravention of the Aviation Security Act of 1982 is life imprisonment. There is no prescribed punishment for a conviction for conspiracy to murder; hence any punishment would be at the discretion of the court. Another member of the university's Lockerbie unit, Professor Fraser Davidson, said the prosecution has reportedly already lined up a thousand witnesses. According to Scottish law, "the burden of proof is on the Crown," the Glasgow professors have written in their Lockerbie trial handbook. "The Crown must prove its case to a high standard, which is expressed in the words 'beyond reasonable doubt.' The Crown therefore commences the trial by calling its witnesses. The defense lawyers are allowed to cross-examine each witness. Leading questions are allowed in cross-examination. After cross-examination is completed, the Crown has the opportunity to re-examine the witness." Scottish criminal procedure provides for three possible outcomes of any trial: guilty, not guilty and not proven. The rules governing the trial in the Netherlands "specifically state that all decisions, including the verdict, are to be taken by at least two (of the three) judges," the handbook notes. The Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit has a special website dedicated to the trial. It is www.law.gla.ac.uk/lockerbie/. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)