Libyan bombing suspects declare innocence

Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt -- 24/9/1997 * Two Libyans charged with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988 declared their innocence on a television talk show Tuesday.

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah also recounted how surprised they were when they learned years ago that they were suspects. They spoke on the Arab program "Ala al-Hawa," or "On the Air."

"I was returning home from work and I found a crowd in front of my house," said Fhimah, dressed in a traditional black, embroidered vest.

He said he heard his name had been on a foreign radio report and added: "Being just a simple citizen, I did not know who to turn to, so the next day I went to the police ... to clarify that I was the person whose name was mentioned on the radio."

Fhimah produced a Koran, the Muslim holy book, and swore on it, saying, "I declare I was not part of the issue" -- referring to the explosion that killed 270 people on Dec. 21, 1988.

Fhimah and al-Megrahi were indicted in 1991 in the United States and Scotland on charges they planned and carried out the bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Investigators charged they were Libyan intelligence agents who, acting under cover as Libyan Arab Airline employees, put a suitcase bomb aboard a plane in Malta that was later transferred to the Pan Am jet.

Orbit Television, the Saudi-owned cable channel that broadcast the interview, did not say why it was conducted now. The show's host, Imad Eddeen Adeeb, said that it was an attempt to get the facts from other than the "foreign media."

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi recently renewed efforts to end U.N. Security Council sanctions against his country stemming from the Pan Am explosion and that of a French jet in 1989. The sanctions were imposed, in part, because of Libya's refusal to turn over the men for trial in the United States or Scotland.

Fhimah, 40, and al-Megrahi, 44, had rarely made public statements until al-Megrahi appeared Sunday on CBS's "Sixty Minutes" to declare his innocence and say he wouldn't mind a trial if it was in a neutral location such as at the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

On the Arab talk show, aired live Monday and repeated Tuesday, lawyer Ibrahim Legwell answered most questions called in to the program. He said his clients, who both live in Tripoli, Libya, could only make general comments to protect their legal rights.

Fhimah said that his mother had died from the stress caused by the charges against him.

Al-Megrahi said when he learned of the charge against him, he hid it from his wife because she was ill at the time.

"We, my children and my family, are still suffering because of this," he said.

Al-Megrahi, a father of four, is accused of having bought the clothes that wound up in the suitcase that exploded, but said he had never even heard of the Malta clothing store involved.

Legwell repeated earlier offers for his clients to be tried by Scottish judges in a neutral country. The United States and Scotland have rejected that proposal.

Asked about the two Libyans' comments, Bert Ammerman, a spokesman for families of those killed on Flight 103, said the families' main concern was that the men be brought to trial.

"I could not care less if they were found guilty. ... Let the world hear the evidence," he said by telephone from New Jersey.