Lockerbie suspects to be tried today; evidence less certain
Libya-UK, Judicial, 5/3/2000

The trial of the two Libyans who are accused of Lockerbie incident in Scotland on December 1988, which resulting in killing 270 persons, will start today in Camp Ziest, Holland.

This trial is expected to last for at least one year because the court will hear more than 1,600 defense and prosecution witnesses.

The Washington Post reported this past Sunday that in the final months "After interviewing thousands of witnesses and collecting 200,000 bits of evidence in one of the world's largest criminal inquiries ...unforeseen doubts have arisen about whether the detective work that led to the suspects will be strong enough to result in their conviction."

The Washington Post added quoting Robert Black, a law professor at Edinburgh University who has worked with Libya, the United States and Britain on the case as saying"I think most Americans just assume that since these two Libyans were indicted, the prosecutors have a cast-iron case ... But some of the evidence is less clear-cut than it once appeared to be. Some of the witnesses are backtracking."

The Washington Post reported that "a second potential problem for the prosecution is that the FBI agent who argued most vociferously for the Switzerland-to-Libya connection at the heart of the Lockerbie case was later charged with manipulating evidence in other cases to favor prosecutors. The FBI says he has left the bureau, and defense attorneys have indicated they want to grill him at the trial."

The trial has come following a settlement whose main lines were drawn in the summer of 1998 between Britain, the US and Libya.

The Libyans show great confidence in the innocence of the two Libyan citizens.

Previous Stories:
  British official arrives in Libya   (4/26/2000)
  Group of 77 calls for lifting sanctions against Libya   (4/15/2000)
  US - Libyan talks   (3/27/2000)

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