Lockerbie Bombing Trial
Fhima arrives in Libya
This page brings you some of the many reports and photographs from the hero´s welcome that Lameen Fhima received after arriving in Libya after being aquitted in Camp Zeist
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updated February 4, 2001
Lameen
Khalifa Fhima: aquitted and back in Libya
February 1, 2001
Lameen Fhima, acquitted in the Lockerbie bombing, left the Netherlands for home Thursday, the Dutch Justice Ministry said, ending nearly two years in detention and a grueling nine-month trial. Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, who was acquitted Wednesday, boarded a Dutch air force plane flying under U.N. authority and left for Libya around 11:30 a.m. Thursday, said spokesman Victor Holtus.
The court said it found no conclusive evidence that Fhimah knowingly helped al-Megrahi place a bomb in the baggage system, even though he supplied the transfer tags that allowed the suitcase to find its way onto the New York-bound airliner. When he heard the verdict Wednesday, Fhimah clasped his hands in victory. Fhimah left the Camp Zeist compound about six hours after the special Scottish court pronounced him innocent. He went in a three-car convoy to an undisclosed destination where he spent the night until his flight home was cleared. The aircraft left from Soesterberg Air Base a few miles from Camp Zeist.
Most Libyans had expected both men to be acquitted. Many Tripoli residents were puzzled by the split decision. The BBC's correspondent in Tripoli, James Robbins, said Fhimah emerged from a Royal Netherlands Air Force plane on Thursday afternoon to "tumultuous scenes". Mr Fhimah flashed a victory sign as he descended into the midst of journalists. He declared: "God is great" on the way. Members of Fhimah's family held up pictures of him. "One is guilty, one is innocent, when they are called together. What does it mean?" said Giuma Abu Kheyr, one of several Libyan officials who joined Fhimah's family to greet his return.
Libyan television reported the return home of Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah as a "victory". "Fhimah is stepping out of the aircraft showing the victory sign. Yes, we have won this case!" the television commentary said. "One of the aspects of our victory is our ability to impose our conditions and demands - above all, that the trial must be held in a neutral country, not in America or Britain," it said. The commentary voiced confidence that Mr Megrahi would win his appeal against the sentence of life imprisonment by the Scottish court in the Netherlands.
"We are certain that he will be found not guilty and we are certain that Libyan nationals as well as the ethics of the international great Fatih revolution, which defends freedom everywhere in the world, could have never been behind such incidents," it said. "We are certain that the day will come when Abd-al-Basit al-Miqrahi will arrive at this airport following his acquittal. "We are certain that he will be found not guilty and we are certain that Libyan nationals, as well as the ethics of the international great Fatih revolution, which defends freedom everywhere in the world, could have never been behind such incidents.
"Yes, the day will come, very soon God willing, when Abd-al-Basit al-al-Miqrahi will win his appeal. "We do trust the impartiality of justice. We do believe that our son and brother is innocent."
There were various shouts from the crowd. ''To hell with America, such an ugly and dirty country!'' one shouted. Some of the relatives expressed disappointment that the other defendant was absent. ''I always thought both of them were innocent,'' said Maqrara Fhimah, an uncle and a retired colonel in one of Libya's security services. ''They are both ordinary employees for Libyan Airlines. They had nothing to do with bombings or terrorism. Of course, we know why they are doing this to Libya. They want to squeeze Libya.''
A Scottish lawyer for Mr. Fhimah, Edward MacKechnie, was also on the plane, and the relatives repeatedly shook his hand.
Camel slaughtered at homecoming
The two embraced repeatedly
while friends and family raised their fists to praise God and denounce
the United States. Guards in red berets surrounded them, trying to keep
cameras and microphones a respectable distance from Libya's paisley-clad
leader. "Libya is a peaceful country," Gaddafi said. "The truth will be
known on Monday."
''Thank God you are safe
-- God willing you are well,'' Colonel Qaddafi
said repeatedly as the two men hugged, near a 20-foot sculpture that depicts
a fist in green aluminum crushing a small warplane marked ''USA.'' Shouts
erupted from a crowd of 30 men swirling around them among a similar number
of reporters. ''They brought Fhimah, and Abdelbaset will be next!'' one
man bellowed. Another yelled, ''To hell with the sanctions!''
Receival by Gadhafi:
A BBC correspondent in Tripoli,
Frank Gardner, watched Mr Fhimah emerge from a Royal Netherlands Air Force
aircraft to a hero's reception. He was then driven to the barracks in the
centre of Tripoli which the US bombed 15 years ago with heavy loss of life
in retaliation for an alleged attack on a nightclub in Berlin where Americans
were killed.
Colonel Gaddafi was present
in the crowd at the barracks and was asked by our correspondent if Libya
was prepared to pay compensation to relatives of those who died in the
Lockerbie crash. He did not answer that question but said that Libya would
be seeking compensation from the West for the "years of sanctions suffered
in the 1990s". Then the Libyan leader said he planned to reveal on Monday
evidence that would prove Megrahi was innocent. Colonel Gaddafi said that
when he disclosed his information, the three Scottish judges who found
Megrahi guilty would face three choices. They could resign, tell the truth
or commit suicide, he declared.
Our correspondent said Colonel
Gaddafi's words "came out of the blue". Libya on Wednesday said it accepted
the verdict of the court. "It has taken everybody by surprise. I suspect
that quite a number of Libyan officials are now scratching their heads,
wondering what evidence this is," he added.
"World Victims of the
CIA"
Speaking for the first time
since his release, he said: "What happened during the trial was not normal."
In an interview on Abu Dhabi satellite television, he said that "pressures
were exerted... inside the court" against him and Al Megrahi. He said:
"What was presented to the court did not include any proof. There were
simply suspicions and lies on the part of the CIA." He said he would
create an organisation called the World Victims of the CIA to study all
cases incriminating American intelligence services.
He said he would personally
finance the group, calling on "all the world's free men, human rights groups
and charitable associations to support the project". "The coming days will
prove Megrahi's innocence," Fhimah added.
Below pictures of Fhima´s return:
After a short reception
at the airport, Fhimah was led through Tripoli by a caravan of cars whose
passengers shouted and cheered through open windows but failed to get much
response from bystanders and other motorists. Few appeared to recognize
Fhimah or treat the event as anything out of the ordinary. He was next
led to Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizya compound, a confusion of tennis courts and
wandering goats, Bedouin tents and volleyball nets, protected by thick
barbed-wire barriers and sharp metal spikes. A camel was slaughtered in
Fhimah's honor, its blood forming a thick pool beneath a sculpture of an
upraised fist crushing a U.S. plane. To the side, water trickled from a
Romanesque fountain. Guards took turns toting a large bouquet, a gift from
the Libyan leader that would not comfortably fit into Fhimah's white sedan
-- also reportedly a gift from Gaddafi.
The Libyan leader, Colonel
Muammar Gaddafi, has told the BBC he plans to reveal evidence which proves
the innocence of his country's intelligence officer convicted of the Lockerbie
bombing. He made the startling claim amid tumultuous scenes as another
Libyan, who was cleared of causing the 1988 airline bombing, set foot on
home soil for the first time in nearly two years.
Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah
said in a television interview that pressure was put on him and his co-accused
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi. Mr Fhimah would not identify who
had applied pressure, but condemned the US Central Intelligence Agency.
Mr Fhimah said he would be pursuing a claim for damages against the US
and UK governments. He returned to Libya on Thursday to a hero's welcome
after spending 22 months in prison at Camp Zeist.
