BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: In the nearly 11 years since the bombing
of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, families of the victims
feel they have lived a lifetime of injustice.
But now, as CNN's David Ensor reports, they are preparing for a trial they hope will bring some resolution.
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DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Scotland's chief prosecutor, the Lord Advocate, came to Washington to assure U.S. family members of victims of Pan Am 103 that justice will be done at the unusual trial of two Libyan suspects. The trial is scheduled to start in February, in the Netherlands, but under Scottish law.
LORD HARDIE, SCOTTISH LORD ADVOCATE: I, as an independent prosecutor, will not accept any suggestion that I have held back or will hold back any evidence. I will not tolerate that.
ENSOR: Some of the victims' families remain skeptical. Scotland, Britain, and the U.S. gave up on getting a jury trial. Instead, it will be a panel of judges. And former U.S. officials confirm U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, assuring him the trial would not be used to "undermine" the Libyan Government.
SUSAN COHEN, VICTIM'S MOTHER: If these guys are guilty, Gadhafi has to be guilty, because they were not rogue terrorists. They were sent by Libya to do this. So, it's absurd not to make that connection.
ENSOR: Scotland's Lord Hardie insists, if the evidence found by his team of 10 prosecutors points that way, so will he.
HARDIE: There have been no deals, there will be no deals with Libya, with the accused, or with anyone else to withhold evidence.
GEORGE WILLIAMS, VICTIM'S FATHER: I trust the Scottish judge, the Scottish Lord Advocate, that if it leads beyond these two, that he'll take it wherever it leads.
ENSOR: But much may depend on the mercurial Gadhafi -- whether he will allow Scottish investigators into Libya and Libyan witnesses to testify in the trial. The U.S. says if he does not cooperate, then Washington will not allow U.N.-imposed economic sanctions against Libya to be lifted.
(on camera): Victims' families were told by Attorney General Janet Reno and other Justice Department officials that the U.S. will pay for them to attend part of the trial and for a closed-circuit television broadcast that only they can will be able watch at certain centers in the U.S. and in Britain. Officials are predicting the trial will take a year or maybe more.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
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