23-5/05/99 The British newspaper Sunday Times claims it has been prevented from publishing detailed "evidence" which allegedly shows the Libya ordered the Lockerbie Pan Am bombing. The paper claims the evidence shows that the bombing of the jumbo jet was ordered in revenge for an American air raid on Tripoli two years earlier. But the newspaper says it was unable to publish full details after the intervention of the government's Treasury solicitor.
Background information:Read the full Sunday Times article HERE (23/5/99)
The intelligence sources of the article are thus not allowed to be published. From reading the article it seems however, that the intelligence information pretty much resembles the information from an American intelligence report released already in 1993. The Sunday Times calls such intelligence reports for "evidence". But all the good talk about intelligence information is worth zero in court. The court case against the two Libyan suspects must be proven with hard evidence and genuine facts. Intelligence reports only become "evidence" the very minute their informations is based on proven facts, not on their immedeate conclusions alone.
The Sunday Times claims, such revealance of "evidence" would hasard the new British governmental ties with Libya after the surrender of the two Libyan suspects for trial in Holland. But there could be other reasons for the British intelligence not to reveal the "evidence"; mainly that the alleged intelligence report does not contain any "evidence" at all. It is thus up to the British Foreign Office to release the "evidence", which the Sunday Times claim, they have seen.
The circus of secret evidence in the Lockerbie investigation continues...
Background information:All about the evidence in the upcoming Lockerbie-trial
Reactions:
The families of victims of the 1988 Pan Am jet bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, reacted with a mix of optimism and
outrage on Sunday to a newspaper report that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered the bombing.
The report in Britain's Sunday Times was encouraging, said Jane Schultz, whose 20-year-old son, Thomas, died in the blast. ``This is good news,'' said Schultz, who lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut. ``We're well on the way to finally knowing the truth.''
Susan Cohen, whose 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, was killed in the bombing, said the newspaper report was ``appalling.'' ``This trial is a fraud and a farce,'' she said. ``If they have intelligence information that it was Gaddafi, what do you need a trial for? Take action, and I think it should be military action. Take tough anti-terrorist action.'' Cohen, who lives in Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey, said she wants Congress to launch an investigation. ``I want to know what the U.S. knows,'' she said.
``It was obviously state-sponsored terrorism, and I'm sure it came from the top,'' said Kathleen Flynn, of Montville, New Jersey, whose son J.P. Flynn was killed in the bombing. ``I'm surprised and dismayed that this kind of evidence was sat on for so many years,'' she said, adding, ``The lifting of sanctions against Libya would be a joke right now.'' Schultz voiced hope, however, that the truth would emerge at the trial, still several months away. ``Once the two go to trial, we've been assured by our government that they can be questioned on wherever the evidence goes,'' she said. ``If Gaddafi can be indicted, terrific. If he can't, at least we know that much,'' she said. ``It's better to know something than nothing.''
Background info: All about the relatives of victims from Pan Am 103
Libyan reaction:
Libya on Sunday denounced a British newspaper article which claimed that Britain had evidence linking Libya to the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The Libyan foreign ministry, in a statement, described the article in The Sunday Times as "misinformation" and an attempt to "once again politicize a case which is now in the hands of the judicial authorities." In its statement, the Libyan foreign ministry accused the newspaper of "seeking to block positive developments in Libyan-Britain relations" and said it was "confident" that the truth will be revealed at the trial. ``Deliberate misinformation and covering it up with blatant lies is an attempt to hamper the new phase in the Libyan-British relations which have started to develop...,'' the official Libyan news agency JANA quoted an ``authoritative source'' at the Libyan Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement issued late Sunday.
The foreign ministry also indicated that it could take legal action against the newspaper for "practices contrary to journalistic ethics which amount to defamation and an attempt to influence the course of justice." JANA said the British report was ``an attempt to politicize the (Lockerbie) case again'' and that it was ``certain that the trial which is under way in Holland will bring out the truth in a way which will invalidate assumptions and trivialities....'' ''What had been published requires that legal and judicial procedures be taken to criminals this act...,'' it added.
Quoting the unidentified official, the Libyan news agency, JANA, said the "deliberate misinformation ... and premeditated campaign has been planned by enemy circles supported by Zionists" to block the new phase of Libyan-British relations. The official called for "legal and judicial measures to criminalize this act, which violates the simplest journalistic values and includes insults, defamation and a pack of lies." The referrence to "Zionists" is caused by the fact that The Sunday Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch.
"The Scotsman" comments on Sunday Times allegation
Following is an article from THE SCOTSMAN, who comments on the above news of intelligence reports "proving" Libya allegedly was behind the downing of Pan Am 103:
(begin article)MPs seek emergency Lockerbie statement
MPS of all parties last night demanded the Government reveal in an emergency statement to the Commons whether it has any information confirming that Colonel Muammaral-Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing. The alarm was raised after the Government slapped a "gagging" order on the Sunday Times, preventing it from publishing details yesterday of an intelligence operation said to provide absolute evidence of Col Gaddafi's direct involvement.
The 11th-hour intervention warned of an immediate injunction against the newspaper unless assurances were given that it would not print details of the intelligence or how it was obtained. The Government based its intervention on the security services' belief that such information could only have been known to "a strictly limited circle within the intelligence community". Significantly, the Treasury Solicitors, who agreed to publication after some details were removed, neither confirmed nor denied the allegation that intelligence showed Col Gaddafi ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988 in revenge for a US air raid on Tripoli in 1986.
Last night, politicians and the legal community were assessing the implications of the allegations. A senior Scottish legal source said Crown Office officials in Scotland would be furious and "jumping up and down" if the claims were true. He said: "If there is information available within the Government which is relative to the issues in this case, including to the defence of the accused, it has to be provided to the prosecuting authorities. "If the Crown Office has not been given all the relevant information, it would be a matter of great concern."
MPs called on Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, who is preparing to rehabilitate the Libyan leader, to make an emergency statement. Donald Anderson, the Labour chairman of the influential foreign affairs select committee, urged Mr Cook to address the Commons "even if it is politically inconvenient". He said: "The Government must come clean and say whether these reports are true. Political convenience and getting on well with another country should not override the interests of justice and the truth should be out. The fingerprints were always likely to be those of Gaddafi or those close to him."
The MPs said if the story was true, then Col Gaddafi should be put in the dock and thatthe forthcoming trial in The Hague of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah would be a "charade". The two men accused of planting the bomb, which killed 259 people on board the aircraft and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, were handed over for trial, paving the way for British-Libyan talks which are shrouded in secrecy. The Foreign Office repeated that it would not reveal where or when the talks were taking place or who was involved. However, a Foreign Office source confirmed the discussions and made clear that they would continue despite the furore.
Last night, Dr Jim Swire (picture left), the spokesman for the British victims' families, said the trial should run its course. He said that if there was evidence of Col Gaddafi's involvement in the bombing, or that of another country, it would only emerge during the court proceedings. He said: "I do not feel that this trial will be an empty or worthless exercise. I asked for assurances from Tony Blair that if any new avenue or direction arises during cross-examination, that it would be actively followed up. The answer he gave to that was, `yes, it would'. "There will also be an inquiry into intelligence - both why intelligence which would have protected our loved ones in 1988 was ignored and what has happened since. That remains the case and these claims will be covered by that inquiry." The Foreign Office said that it never commented on intelligence matters and that the Lockerbie case was sub judice.
David Wilshire, a Conservative member of the foreign affairs select committee, said talks with Libya should end. "If there is the slightest bit of truth in this, then the Government is very foolish to start normalising relations with Libya. Some of us would argue that Gaddafi should be on trial as well." The Government is reluctant to jeopardise the new diplomatic initiative, which promises billions of pounds in orders for British companies, following Col Gaddafi's surrender of the two Lockerbie suspects last month and the lifting of United Nations sanctions against Libya. Next month British Airways will re-introduce direct services to Tripoli from London Gatwick.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, and a campaigner for a Freedom of Information Bill, which will be unveiled today, said the trial in the Netherlands would be a charade if the Government knew that Col Gaddafi ordered the bombing. He said: "If the Government has clear evidence that Gaddafi is behind the bombing, then he should be on trial. It appears that the importance of diplomatic relations have superseded the concept of justice. "The families of the Lockerbie victims will not thank the Government for sweeping this under the carpet."
John Witherow, the editor of the Sunday Times, said that the paper had accepted the deal so that the main thrust of the story would be in the public domain. Malcolm Rifkind, the former Tory foreign secretary, said: "If the two Libyans who will be appearing in The Hague are guilty, then unless there is evidence to the contrary the assumption is that they must be acting on the orders of the Libyan government." In March, a French court found six Libyan officials, on trial in their absence - including the brother-in-law of Col Gaddafi - guilty of the bombing of a French airliner in 1989, which killed 170 people.
David Ott, a retired lecturer in international law at Aberdeen University, said there was no clear legal precedent to try Col Gaddafi. He said: "At this level, the legal aspect becomes a matter of international politics. It becomes a political matter rather than a legal one." (end of article)
THE SCOTSMAN also featured an editorial leader regarding the Sunday Times' articles in Monday's edition.
Read the Scotsman editorial leader here
The articles from THE SUNDAY TIMES and THE SCOTSMAN caused some trouble in Scotland. Dr. Robert Black from Edinburgh, who drafted the Lockerbie trial agreement, felt obliged to respond to the leader and the front page of THE SCOTSMAN. Following is a letter from dr. Black, sent to the editor of THE SCOTSMAN 24/05/99:
The Editor
The Scotsman
24 May 1999
Sir,
On page 1 of Monday's edition you report certain allegations, said
to emanate from sources within the British intelligence community,
regarding ultimate responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing.
If these allegations are founded upon evidence, the place for the
exploration of the credibility and reliability of that evidence is the
forthcoming trial in the Netherlands, where it will be highly relevant
to the issue of the guilt or innocence of the two Libyan suspects.
In your first leader in the same issue, you correctly state that "The
integrity of the legal system is one of the most important
guarantees of our freedoms." Publication of material leaked from
intelligence sources concerning matters which are the subject of
active criminal proceedings gravely undermines that integrity.
You go on to comment that "It is nonsensical to try to proceed with
the Lockerbie trial if the Government already knows the culprit is a
head of state with whom it now desires a cosy relationship." This
comment is outrageous. The Lockerbie relatives, and the two
accused men, have a right to see all relevant evidence presented
before, and tested and scrutinised by, an unbiased judicial tribunal.
What is truly nonsensical is to suggest that they should be
deprived of this right because of unproven allegations leaked from
intelligence sources.
As I personally know only too well, there are powerful interests
which have never wanted the evidence relating to the Lockerbie
atrocity to be exposed to the light of day in a Scottish court. To
find The Scotsman wittingly or unwittingly giving aid and comfort to
those interests is deeply disappointing and disturbing.
Yours faithfully,
Robert Black.
Background info:All about dr. Robert Black and the Lockerbie trial
South African reaction to ST article:
JOHANNESBURG (May 24) XINHUA - South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister, Aziz Pahad, Monday shrugged off news reports that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, South African Press Association (SAPA) reported. Pahad is with a high-profile South African trade delegation currently in Libya.
"There is nothing new to the speculation, which has been going on for ten years, and this is precisely why (South African) President Nelson Mandela and others have spent so much time and energy to ensure that the matter is put to rest by ensuring that the trial (of the two men suspected of the bombing) takes place in a third and neutral country," Pahad said in Sirte, some 450 kilometers from Tripoli.
CAPE TOWN, May 11 (Reuters) - South African president Nelson Mandela on Tuesday praised U.N. chief Kofi Annan for helping end a decade of diplomatic deadlock with Libya over the bombing of a U.S. airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Mandela, who retires next month, was awarding medals to Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and South African diplomat Jakes Gerwel for negotiating the handover of the two Libyan suspects in the bombing.
``What we are recognising today includes the fact that what was done, was done in loyal and disciplined service of the United Nations secretary-general,'' he told an audience of reporters and diplomats. ``He has demonstrated in his comparatively short period in office a remarkable ability to mobilise the goodwill and capacity of others in peacemaking efforts.'' Gerwel,
Al-Saud and Mandela himself played major roles in patiently piecing together with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the Libyan authorities the complex deal that finally broke the diplomatic stalemate. Al-Saud was awarded the Order of Good Hope, grand officerclass -- the highest honour that can be given to a non-national -- while Gerwel was awarded the Order of the Southern Cross for citizens making an outstanding contribution to the nation.
05/05/99 A 3 judge panel at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled May 4 that Circuit Judge Thomas C. Platt violated the civil rights of defendant, Lester Coleman. It was a 3-0 decision. It is now left to the government if they wish to reindict Coleman, who was accused of perjury over an affidavit filed in the Pan Am 103 civil litigation.
The US Attorney who prosecuted the case, Alan Vickery has left the Justice Department. In light of recent litigation involving President Clinton over similar allegations, it is doubtful the US government will persue this matter further.
Background info:
UNITED NATIONS, April 28 (Reuters) - A dozen U.S. Senators urged Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Wednesday to keep sanctions against Libya in place until the end of the trial of two suspects accused of the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing. The embargoes have been suspended since Tripoli surrendered for trial the two men charged with blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988. The U.N. Security Council is to consider in early July, after a report from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whether to lift permanently the sanctions, which include air, arms and partial oil-industry-equipment embargoes but not an oil embargo.
``The United States should not consent to permanently lifting the sanctions before the trial is concluded to ensure continued Libyan cooperation,'' said the letter, organised by New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg and signed by nine Democrats and three Republicans.
Washington has said it would keep the sanctions in place until Libya can demonstrate it has renounced terror ``in word and in deed.'' In practice, however, any move to reimpose the suspended sanctions in the 15-member Security Council would be nearly impossible, as it would require positive votes from nine members and the absence of vetoes by any of the five permanent council members. But diplomats said Libya was eager to see the sanctions lifted as soon as possible. Any threat to keep them in place might hurt negotiations with jittery foreign oil companies.
The senators said in the letter that a commitment to the victims' families should go beyond the trial. ``We would appreciate your assurances that no line of inquiry has been excluded,'' the senators wrote. ``The United States must pursue the investigation to identify all those responsible for ordering, financing and organising as well as carrying out this terrible crime, wherever they may be,'' the letter said. ``Our national interest demands that we demonstrate that terrorists who attack our citizens will be tracked down and will find no quarter,'' it added.
``We stand ready to support your efforts to punish terrorists as well as those who support and encourage such unlawful and uncivilized conduct,'' the letter concluded. In addition to Lautenberg, other signatories included Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Charles Schumer of New York, Diane Feinstein of California, and Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. The Republican senators were Gordon Smith of Oregon, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Sam Brownback of Kansas.
The trial is to begin no later than the end of July, some 110 days after the suspects surrendered and were handed over to Scottish police in the Netherlands. But lawyers for the accused are expected to ask for a delay. The senators also asked if the families could have access to the trial, possibly through a television link to the United States.
Background info:For other recent letters from the US Senate regarding Lockerbie, and other US opinions, go HERE
BRUSSELS, April 20 (Reuters) - The European Union on Tuesday suspended sanctions against Libya, in line with a similar move by the United Nations two weeks ago after the handover of two Libyans accused of bombing a Pan Am jet in 1988. The EU said in a statement it would decide whether to lift the sanctions definitively after studying a U.N. report, due in 90 days, on whether Libya has met all the conditions set out for an end to the measures.
The EU said it would continue a 1986 ban on arms exports to Libya and restrictions it imposed on diplomatic personnel. These measures were introduced because of Libya's support for international terrorism, it said.
HARARE (April 16) XINHUA - Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Committee on Libya, Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge has revealed more evidence that could exonerate the two Libyans accused of bombing a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 20, 1988. In an interview with the Zimbabwe News Agency here Friday, Mudenge agreed with his predecessor Nathan Shamuyarira who is now Minister for Industry and Commerce that if tried fairly, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al- Amin khalifa Fahima would walk free. Mudenge said the single piece of evidence Britain and the United States of America used to link the Libyans to the bombing that killed 270 people had serious loop-holes and the two countries' star witness had been found to be unreliable.
"There are documents to this effect and they will be produced during the trial in the Netherlands," he said. U.S. and British investigators found the device that detonated the bomb in the collar of a shirt worn by one of the victims. The origins of the device were traced to Switzerland and the Czech Republic where the two Libyans, both pilots, happened to have flown to in the days just prior to the incident. "In Switzerland the owner of the shop where the device was bought told investigators that it was the only one he ever sold and he sold it to two Libyans," the minister said.
"The investigators showed him the pictures of al-Megrahi and Fahima only, and he identified them as the ones who had bought the device," said Mudenge. However, it had since been discovered that when the bombing occurred, the shop-owner was an agent of the now defunct East German Intelligence Agency and that he, in fact, had sold similar devices to several other customers during the same period. "This and other more damaging information I cannot reveal now discredited the Americans' witness," he said. "Furthermore, the British and the Americans have never offered concrete evidence to link the Libyans to the bombing except that the two visited Switzerland and the Czech Republic a few days before the bombing," he said.
He also said the OAU, which became very active through a special committee of foreign ministers to ensure the Libyans were given a fair trial, was concerned that initially the American investigators had accused other nationals but only centered on the Libyans on the basis of evidence of an unreliable witness. "It is also true that former South African Foreign Affairs Minister Pik Botha and other people were tipped to avoid the plane," he said. "So, the question really is who tipped them and why?" asked Mudenge, echoing Shamuyarira, who has been credited as the first person to initiate talks on the possibility of having the Libyans tried in a neutral country.
Mudenge said when they were finally handed over for trial in the Netherlands, al-Megrahi and Fahima were "very happy" that the chance to prove their innocence had come. He said the entire African continent, through the OAU, believed their innocence and would stand by them throughout the trial.
HARARE (April 16) XINHUA - The breakthrough in the Lockerbie stand off is in fact a triumph of the entire African leadership over British and American bullying, Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said Friday. Mudenge, who is Chairman of the OAU ministers committee on Libya, chronicled a five-year diplomatic strategy by the OAU that eventually forced Britain and the U.S. on one side and Libya that Abdel Basset al- Megrahi and al-Amin khalifa Fahima be tried in neutral Holland.
In an interview with the Zimbabwe News Agency Ziana, the minister said in 1991, Britain and the U.S. demanded that they be tried in either of the two countries but Libya refused, arguing that the evidence against them was circumstantial and inconclusive. This resulted in Britain and the U.S. successfully lobbying the United Nations to impose economic and air sanctions on Libya.
However, as the world searched for a way to break the impasse, a British barrister suggested, for the first time in 1994, that the two be tried in a neutral country. This idea was perfected by a Scottish legal expert of the University of Edinburgh, who devised the concept of the Libyans being tried in the Netherlands, under Scottish law, monitored by the U.N. "This proposal was brought to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who agreed and so did the Arab League and the OAU," Mudenge said.
The minister said South African President Nelson Mandela and King Fahd Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia joined the negotiations recently to help iron out a few political problems the American government faced among its own people. He added that a book would soon be written chronicling this triumph.
April 14th, 1999 Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima were committed for trial in a brief closed-door ceremony at Camp Zeist. The suspects appeared separately before Scottish regional judge Sherrif Principal Graham Cox.
"The whole thing lasted minutes," a Scottish Office spokesman at Camp Zeist told Reuters. "They made no plea or declaration and were committed for trial," he said, adding this was a normal procedure. The suspects spoke only once, to confirm their identities, in a makeshift room adorned with a Scottish court crest.
Special website with in-dept coverage on the upcoming trial. Update: 14/04/99
06/04/99 The two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing have been remanded in custody by a Scottish court in the Netherlands. In a very brief private hearing, Sheriff Principal Graham Cox arraigned Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah at Camp Zeist in Holland. They were not required to make any plea or declaration by the unique Scottish court convened specifically for this case.
The two suspects were accompanied by their lawyers and United Nations officials observed the proceedings. Both men will continue to be held in separate cells in the UK's smallest prison, set up at the former Dutch air base in the run-up to their trial.Professor Robert Black, who helped design the scheme for the third-country trial, predicted that the trial would start in seven or eight months. He said that at the very worst, the trial would have the negative effect of showing that the evidence did not establish that the two accused were guilty, but without indicating that anyone else might have been responsible. He did not expect a not proven verdict. "I am prepared to bet relatively large sums of money that they will either find the accused guilty or not guilty. There will be no fudging."
Special website with in-dept coverage on the upcoming trial. Update: 07/04/99
More background info: For detailed coverage of the handover on April 5, please go to THIS PAGE.
updated: 07/04/99
World Court presses on with obscure Lockerbie case
AMSTERDAM, April 6 (Reuters) - A dispute between Libya, the U.S. and Britain rumbled on at the World Court on Tuesday, despite the surrender of two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing and the suspension of U.N. sanctions against Libya. A spokeswoman for the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the U.N.'s top court, said it was up to Libya to drop a complaint against the U.S. and Britain over their handling of the 10-year hunt for the suspected bombers of Pan Am Flight 103.
``Libya brought the case so it is up to Libya to withdraw it,'' the spokeswoman said. ``Libya is a sovereign state. As such, the court will not approach Libya.'' The fresh developments in the surrender of the two suspects changed nothing as far as the World Court was concerned, the spokeswoman said. Cases that come before the 15 judges in the imposing Peace Palace often drag on for years.
``Officially the first round of written pleadings has ended and normally the parties would move on to the second round,'' she said. The U.S. and Britain had filed documents as recently as March 31, a week before the Libyan suspects' handover. Legal experts say the case before the World Court may have been instrumental in persuading Britain and the United States to settle for a Lockerbie trial in a neutral third country. A victory for Libya would have meant that any trial must be held in Libya.
Libya won the first round of legal argument in February, 1998 when the court ruled it had jurisdiction to hear the case. A few months later, Britain and the U.S. dropped their insistence on a trial on their home turf. ``Britain and the U.S. were faced with choosing a trial in a neutral third country or running the risk of a trial in Libya. As far as they were concerned, it wasn't much of a choice,'' said an international legal expert who declined to be named.
Background info: All about the Lockerbie trial at International Court in Haag.
Please note, this is NOT about the criminal Lockerbie trial in Zeist, but about the international law case, brought forward to the ICJ in Haag 1992 and a verdict was reached in 1998.
UN suspends Libya sanctions 06/04/99 BBC+UN +Reuters The UN has suspended its sanctions against Libya following the handover of two men for trial over the Lockerbie airline bombing. The sanctions were automatically suspended after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan formally notified the Security Council that the suspects had arrived in the Netherlands. They are expected to be fully lifted within 90 days, provided the Security Council receives a report from Mr Annan confirming that Libya no longer sponsors terrorism.
The council must also be satisfied on other matters, including that Libya is prepared to pay the victims compensation if the two suspects are found guilty. "I am looking forward to the earliest possible resumption of Libya's relations with the rest of the international community," Mr Annan told a news conference in New York. However, some American sanctions, put in place before those of the UN, will remain.
The US did not specify which, but said it was those "intended to limit Libyan access to funds and material for terrorist activities, weapons of mass destruction programmes and other destabilising military actions."
Meanwhile, Libya is celebrating. Libyans cut off from the outside world by the U.N. air embargo welcomed the suspension of the ban after seven years when the only way out was the long road to an airport in neighbouring Tunisia or Egypt or a ferry ride to Malta. ``I am really happy, because the suspension of sanctions means that I will finally be able to fly abroad directly from Tripoli,'' Sadok Bek, a Tripoli trader said by telephone.
``You can't imagine how frustrated I was with the air ban. I plan to take the first international flight just to mark the event,'' said a businessman who asked not to be named. An official at Libyan flag carrier Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA) said an international flights schedule would be ready by Wednesday. Foreign airline companies have not given any schedules.
``International flights will help the Libyan economy. But I don't expect an effect for the short term, because not many Libyans are allowed to obtain foreign currency to cover their expenses abraod,'' a Libyan banker who requested anonymity said. The resumption of international flights would be good news for diplomats, thousands of expatriates working for foreign oil companies or for workers of South Korean firms involved in multi-billion dollar projects in Libya, he added.
Background information: UN SANCTION PAGE
Everything about the former UN sanctions and embargos against Libya. Official information, interviews, legal stuff, damage reports, discussions, explenations and much more.
This page cotains the latest in-dept coverage of the handover, pictures, interviews, soundiles, video features, comments and much more. The special handover page will be updated through the hours the next few days. For updated news relating to the handover, please go to above page.
05/04/99 EDINBURGH (Reuters) - With Scottish judges, Libyan suspects, victims from dozens of nations and a Dutch court, the upcoming Lockerbie trial could make perfect television drama. The question is: Will television be there? Unlike the United States, Britain has never allowed live TV coverage from courtrooms for fear of influencing the jury. The high-profile O.J. Simpson case and that of British au pair Louise Woodward in Boston were the first live trials many Britons had ever seen.
*****end of this page **** due to technical problems some of the other news has been lost *******(25/05/1999)
