UN personal arrive to receive Libyan suspects in 1988 explosion of Pan Am jet

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mousa said today that an Egyptian delegation on Sunday headed by Minister for administrative development Muhammad Zaki Abu Aamer, including ambassador Abu Zeid, the minister assistant for Arab affairs, will head to Libya to see the departure of the two Libyan suspects in the 1988 explosion of a Pan Am passenger jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

This delegation will represent the membership of the seven member Arab League committee in charge of Lockerbie issue.

Arab diplomatic sources in Egypt said that Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdul Meguid will also head on Sunday to Tripoli for the same purpose as the Libyan suspects leave to Holland for the long-awaited trial.

Meanwhile, UN legal advisor Hans Corell is to arrive in Libya tomorrow to receive the two Libyan suspects.

Corell, who is an assistant UN's secretary general, will meet the suspects in Libya where Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is appointed on Tuesday to hand them over.

"I can confirm from all that we have heard that the Libyan government intends to meet that timetable," UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said yesterday in a statement. "Nevertheless the final guarantee of success will not come until the plane carrying the two suspects takes off from Tripoli," he added.

Corell is expected to be accompanied by the two suspects from Libya to Holland with their lawyer, relatives and doctor.

Libya announced that the suspects handed over their passports after they informed the Libyan general prosecutor on their desire to be presented to a Scottish court.

Sources close to the suspects' lawyers confirmed that the handover is going to take place on Monday in secret.

The United Nations decided to carry out this operation in complete privacy, as the UN secretary general's spokesman Fred Eckhard said if the matters proceeds as decided, no one will know that they left Libya unless they are already gone.