This page has some of the more important news concerning the Lockerbie-incident. Here is a short summary of just what has happened lately in the criminal, technical or political investigations and the concern for UN-sanctions against Libya.
September the 22nd 1997 - December, the 18th 1997
18/12/1997 At the conclusion of the 8th Arab Parliamentary Conference being held in Libya the heads of the parliamentary delegations condemned all shapes and aspects of terrorism and violence. They reiterated their rejection of all the activities that aim to impair the interests of any country.
The final statement of the conference gave its full support to the Libyan people in the Lockerbie crisis. The delegation heads called for holding the trial of the Libyan suspects in a neutral country.The secretary general of Arab League, Dr.Esmat Abdel Meguid, stated that there are some contacts with the western countries to end the Lockerbie crisis. The heads of the participating delegation stated that efforts must be exerted in order to lift the sanctions imposed on Libya, as the reasons for imposing the sanctions do not conform with international laws.
16 December 1997 A U.N. envoy on a mission to assess the impact of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Libya held talks in Tripoli with the Arab League chief on the Lockerbie affair, Libya's state-run television reported.
"We hope that it will make positions move in order to reach a satisfying solution to this issue," Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid said in a broadcast statement monitored on Monday night in neighbouring Tunisia. Vladimir Petrovski, director-general of the U.N. European headquarters, arrived on Saturday for a six-day mission to "hear and collect information pertinent to the implementation of Security Council resolutions 748 and 883, the two resolutions which established the regime of sanctions."
Before leaving for Tripoli, Petrovski said his mandate as set by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would not include discussing the Lockerbie case. Libyan television quoted Meguid as saying that he explained to Petrovski the Arab League's view on the Lockerbie issue and that the U.N. envoy would transmit these views to Annan.
"The mission is a right move," Meguid was also quoted as saying. In Tripoli, Meguid attended a two-day Arab Parliamentarians Union extraordinary session devoted to expressing support for Libya over the Lockerbie affair.
The Egyptian public prosecutor is overseeing extensive investigations to learn the fate of the daughter of Libyan lawyer Ibrahim Legwell, who is heading the Libyan defense team in the Lockerbie case between Libya, the US, and the UK. Legwell did not rule out the possibility that his daughter's disappearance occurred in retaliation for his role in the Lockerbie case.
The Egyptian public prosecutor had been notified by Legwell of the disappearance of his daughter Rehab, 15, after she made a phone call from Cairo with her father in which he informed her of his return to Cairo on the day of her disappearance.
Legwell accused an Egyptian lawyer who is a friend of his of kidnapping Rehab and did not rule out the involvement of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the case. An Egyptian security source ruled out the existence of political motives in this case. The source also expected that this mystery would be unraveled within hours.
Read the news about Legwell's daughter in ARABIC-text
15 December 1997: Attorneys for families of the victims of PanAm Flight 103 and the Libyan government clashed in court on Friday over whether Libya should face a civil lawsuit seeking to hold it accountable for the Lockerbie bombing. On Friday, United States District Judge Thomas Platt heard arguments from lawyers representing Libya, which wants the civil case tossed out, and attorneys for victims' families, who believe it should go forward. The suit, which seeks unspecified financial damages, alleges the Libyan government contributed to the bombing and so should be held responsible.
13 December 1997 A United Nations envoy arrived in Tripoli on Saturday for a six-day visit to assess the impact of Security Council sanctions on Libya, U.N. officials in the Libyan capital said. The mission headed by Vladimir Petrovski, director-general of the U.N. European headquarters, travelled by air to the Tunisian island of Djerba before going on to Tripoli by road, said a U.N. official in Tripoli, contacted by telephone from Tunis.
Tripoli 3/12/1997
Libya's permanent representative to the United Nations issued a memorandum on Sunday saying that while his country had respect for the Scottish judiciary, a fair and impartial trial of the Lockerbie suspects was not possible in Britain, the Libyan news agency JANA reported.
The memorandum was sent to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who on Friday accepted an invitation from the British government to send UN observers to Scotland in order to evaluate its legal system. The memorandum pointed out that Libya "had not made any negative statements about the Scottish judiciary, and that it had stressed its respect for the deep-rooted history of the Scottish judiciary in a memorandum to the Security Council dated 7th July 1997".
It said Libya had agreed to the trial of the suspects at the International Court of Justice in The Hague "by Scottish judges and in accordance with Scottish law", and that its objections to Scotland as the trial venue did not spring from doubts about its legal system. Reports by the media and statements by officials had "created an atmosphere filled with the signs of prior conviction of the suspects", according to the memorandum.
"That could never ensure a fair and impartial trial, which is their natural, human and legal right," JANA quoted the memorandum as saying.
December 2, 1997;
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.N. officials are heading for Scotland to analyze whether suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 can receive a fair trial there. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters Tuesday that the three U.N. officials will arrive in London Wednesday and travel to Lockerbie, Scotland, to visit prison and court facilities.
The three UN observers, who include a Zimbabwean former chief justice and a Dutch professor of law, are to take a look at Scotland's legal system first-hand. They will visit a prison, a court, talk to Scottish legal experts and examine possible arrangements for international monitors to observe any trial. Essentially, the initiative is an attempt by the British government to get the UN to persuade the world - and Libya in particular - that Scotland's legal system is fair. The government has sent similar invitations to the Organisation of African Unity and the Arab League,though so far both bodies have refused to send teams to Scotland.
Britain invited Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send representatives to Scotland after Arab and African countries complained that two Libyans indicted in the bombing could not receive a fair trial in Scotland or the United States.
Another team, headed by Vladimir Petrovsky, director-general of the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva, will go to Tripoli later this month to survey the impact of Security Council sanctions on Libya. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the request was made by the Libyan government and Petrovsky, who had visited the country previously, was chosen to lead a three-man mission. His departure date was not given.
Diplomats of several countries, including Russia, have said they believe it is time to find a solution and end the sanctions against the Libyan regime. Also Tuesday, Eckhard said Annan had agreed to send a U.N. delegation to Libya to look into the effects of the aviation sanctions.
23 November 1997: Dr. Esmat Abdel Meguid, the secretary-general of the Arab League, has received Saad Mujber, assistant secretary-general of Libyan public conference, and they discussed the recent developments regarding the Libyan Lockerbie crisis. After the meeting, Magber praised Meguid's role in the current crisis. He said that he presented the invitation to the secretary-general for attending the urgent meeting of the Arab parliament union council which will begin on 14 December and will last for 3 days and discuss the solidarity of the Arab states with Libya in light of the Lockerbie crisis and the resulting UN blockade.
9 November 1997: Libya asked the Security Council on Thursday to send a United Nations envoy to Libya to assess the humanitarian impact of sanctions and certify that the Libyan government “has nothing to do with terrorism.” Libyan Ambassador to the U.N. Abuzaid Dorda [pictured] made the request one day before the council holds its periodic review of aviation sanctions imposed on Libya in 1992. In a letter to the council, Dorda said there was "no justification for sanctions" against his country and that the council should lift them.
More about Abuzed Dorda and his work
November the 4th 1997
Dr. Ibrahim al-Ghwail, the lawer of the two Libyans accused of masterminding the 1988 Pan Am explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland, told France Press that his clients [Abdulbasit al-Megherhi and Lameen Fhaima] are afraid that the United States spies might kidnap them. The two Libyans said they had a serious car accident last week where they almost got killed.
4 November 1997: Libya has said it is impossible for two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie bombing to get a fair trial in Scotland although the Scottish justice system is fair. The Libyan Foreign Ministry said British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's invitation to the United Nations to send observers to Scotland to evaluate the Scottish legal system in action was a ploy to undermine other initiatives to solve the problem. "Libya does not doubt the fairness of the Scottish judiciary or its equity," the Libyan Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued at the weekend and obtained from the official Libyan news agency JANA on Monday. "But...the campaign through the press and statements by officials in Britain and the United States has led to a prior condemnation of the two suspects, ruling out any possibility of a fair and just trial for them in Scotland," it added.
Saturday, November 1, 1997; 8:27 a.m. EST
Pope John Paul II on Friday urged an end "without delay" to international sanctions on Libya.
The sanctions bar flights to and from Libya and ban arms sales to the North African nation.
John Paul last year indirectly called for an end to the sanctions, which the Vatican generally opposes on grounds they hurt the poorest people. The Vatican also has spoken out against U.S.sanctions on Cuba.
"I hope ... that there will be an end without delay to the difficulties of the Libyan people due to the air embargo imposed on their country for many years," John Paul said.
31-October 1997 A TOP Department of South Africa's Foreign Affairs lawyer has backed President Nelson Mandela's controversial stance on Libya, advising him to support Moammar Gadaffi's refusal to hand the Lockerbie bombing suspects to Britain and the United States.
The department's chief legal adviser, Albert Hoffmann, told Mandela's office that according to international law, Libya was right to refuse to hand over the suspects accused of the bombing of a PanAm jumbo jet in 1988.
Read Chief legal Adviser Hoffmann's comment on the MANDELA-page
29 October 1997: Britain on Tuesday asked The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send envoys to Scotland so they could evaluate the legal system that would try two Libyan suspects accused of blowing up a Pan-Am airliner over Lockerbie in 1988. British ambassador Sir John Weston followed up on a formal announcement from Foreign Secretary Robin Cook who said the U.N., the Organization of African Unity and the Arab League were all asked to send high-level representatives to Scotland to examine the fairness of the judiciary. Weston said he asked Annan to send two envoys to visit a Scottish prison and court facilities and to discuss trial arrangements.
Lee Kreindler, the attorney who has sued Libya under a provision of the new U.S. terrorism law for the deaths of the plane's 259 passengers and crew, said families have been deeply disturbed by a half dozen mailings from Libya. "We are charging harassment," Kreindler said.
The mailings, according to the families, include letters, documents and articles aimed at convincing them that Libya was not involved in the downing of the plane and to persuade them to support an international trial for the two alleged Libyan saboteurs of the plane.
While some families advocate an international trial, which Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi has pledged to support, other families insist that any trial must take place in Scotland or the United States -- the position held by the U.S. government.
Kathleen Flynn, of Morris Co., N.J., whose son was on Pan Am 103, said she was outraged by the mailings, which appear to have been sent from Libya's U.N. mission in Manhattan. "I think it is a desecration to the memory of my son," she said. "This is nothing more than a form of harassment -- a propaganda ploy they are using to become the good guy."
Click here to read more about the visit of Mandela to Libya and Scotland
Scotland issued an official press release regarding the news of the new case in front of the International Court of Justice in Haag 13.-22.10.1997.
Susan Cohen, the mother of Theodora Cohen, who was 20 when Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, said in an interview that families in the United States received a letter early this month from Libya's U.N. representative drawing attention to speeches made in support of his country in this fall's General Assembly debate. The letter said that only Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook of Britain objected in speeches to Libya's request to have the sanctions lifted before the suspects are extradited.
Mrs. Cohen, who lives in Cape May Courthouse, N.J., said families of the Lockerbie victims were divided about how to keep their campaign alive, with some relatives urging others to accept compensation from the Libyans. She said a group of lawyers has been asking American families to settle out of court. A similar offer is making some headway in Britain, she said, as is backing for Libya's plan to hold a trial in a third country. Some families have filed a civil suit hoping to settle with the Libyan government. But Libya's main purpose in lobbying the families is to get their agreement for a trial outside of Scotland, which would open the way to removing the sanctions.
Recently, the Arab League and the Organization of African Unity adopted positions sympathetic to Libya. Many diplomats are convinced that enthusiasm for continuing sanctions has been steadily waning. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, current chairman of the Organization of African Unity, told the General Assembly in his speech that the settlement of the
Lockerbie case and the lifting of sanctions were of great concern to Africans.
"In addition to the families of those who lost their lives, many other innocent third persons continue to suffer as a result of the sanctions imposed on Libya," Mugabe said.
A debate over the high human cost of sanctions has been steadily building at the United Nations. Relief organizations are most concerned about Iraq, which has been under a comprehensive embargo since 1990. Monday, October 20, 1997
Read the news about the Pan Am 103-conference in USA 20-21.10.1997
Libya's represetative in the International Court of Justice said that the ICJ has the right to discuss the Lockerbie affair. Hamed al-Hdairi said that Libya will discuss the issue today Friday after both the British and the Americans early this week had the chance to tell the court their points of view.
Libya took the stand at the International Court of Justice on Friday and accused the United States and Britain of exploiting the 1988 bombing of a U.S. passenger airliner over Scotland for political ends.
"The reactions of the two states after the tragic explosion at Lockerbie are explained by geopolitical and ideological reasons," Libyan law professor Abdelrazeg Suleiman said.
"They have little to do with the reality of the actual facts," he told the United Nations court.
Libya says the Security Council is a United States tool. Suleiman said Britain and the United States were motivated by a "desire to destabilise Libya" and this was why they had so far rejected attempts to settle the dispute peacefully.
He said their hostility towards Libya stemmed from the bloodless coup which swept Muammar Gaddafi to power in 1969, leading to a loss of political and commercial influence in the region for Britain and the United States.
Suleiman said allegations directed against Libya over the Lockerbie bombing were part of a broader strategy to portray it as a "terrorist state."
The head of Libya's delegation, Ambassador Hamed Ahmed Elhouderi, insisted that Tripoli rejected acts of random violence. "My country supports any efforts to fight blind terrorism which strikes out at innocent victims," he said. Elhouderi said Libya shared the concern of the Lockerbie victims' families to uncover the truth.
"We request and demand that the truth be known about this tragedy as quickly as possible, because the suffering it has caused the families of the victims and the Libyan people cannot go on like this," he said.
10. October 1997
Lester Coleman, former CIA-member was yesterday sentenced guilty by an US Court for telling lies about Pan Am 103.
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 30 (Reuter) - Libya called on the General Assembly on Tuesday to intervene in the Lockerbie affair to enable two Libyans charged with bombing an airliner over Scotland in 1988 to be tried in a country other than Britain or the United States.
Referring to Britain and the United States, Libyan U.N. representative Abuzed Dorda said: ``How can anyone expect the Security Council to solve the problem when our adversaries are both permanent members of the council and possess the veto power? In other words, they are the judge and the jury.''
He said those countries ``know, more than anybody else, that Libya has nothing to do at all with this airplane and the tragic incident.'' Libya had ``no problem with the Security Council and the Security Council has no problem with us,'' he said.
If the United States and Britain had accepted proposals made by various regional and international organizations for resolving the problem, the council ``would not have hesitated for one moment to accept them,'' he added.
Dorda told Assembly delegates: ``My country calls on you to intervene so that we can reach a peaceful solution to this dispute, one that would accelerate the holding of the trial for the two suspects before a fair and just court, in a climate free of prior condemnation ... in any place to be agreed upon or to be decided by the Security Council.''
He noted that, when the council held a ministerial-level meeting last week on the situation in Africa, the Lockerbie issue was raise by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, as OAU chairman; by OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim; as well as by foreign ministers.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who took part in the council meeting, said the only place the suspects could face trial under Scottish law was in Scotland.
``There is no legal authority in the law of the Netherlands for a court of another jurisdiction to sit in The Hague,'' he said.
Replying to Dorda at the end of Wednesday's Assembly session, British U.N. representative Sir John Weston repeated an offer for observers from the Arab League, the OAU or any other such body to attend a trial held in Scotland, to monitor its impartiality.
``Additional facilities would also be provided, including daily access to the accused if the later so wished,'' he said.
``It remains for the Libyan government to meet its responsibilities to abide by the council's decisions in full,'' Weston added.
London Al-Sharq al-Awsat in Arabic 27 Sep 97 p 6
Subslug: Report by Sawsan Abu-Husayn: "Salma Rashid, Libya's Representative to Arab League, Tells Al-Sharq al-Awsat: British Proposal Concerning Lockerbie Is a Start for Dialogue; It Will Be Discussed by Arab Foreign Ministers in New York Monday"
Cairo -- Salma Rashid, Libya's representative to the Arab League, has told Al-Sharq al-Awsat that the British proposal to invite Libyan and international observers to attend the trial of the two suspects in the Lockerbie aircraft blast case is merely an encouraging start for dialogue, in contrast with the refusal in the past to discuss any Arab proposal to resolve the Lockerbie crisis.
This is the first Libyan reaction to the remarks made by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook at the UN General Assembly meeting. He rejected the Arab and African proposals to conduct the trial in a neutral country [but] in accordance with Scottish law; he offered, instead, that observers attend the trial in Scotland.
Salma Rashid confirmed that Arab foreign ministers will discuss the British proposal on the periphery of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Monday, in the light of the resolutions adopted by the Arab League Council's recent meeting and by the Organization of Islamic Conference and the OAU.
She said that the Arab and African committees entrusted with resolving the Lockerbie crisis will hold two meetings to discuss and respond to the British proposal, on the grounds that the Lockerbie case has acquired a regional, Arab, and African dimension and it is no longer only a matter of solutions proposed
by Libya.
She said that Tripoli has actually received the British proposal through UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, but the Libyan response will be made through the Arab stand adopted in solidarity with Libya. She hoped that Britain will respond to Arab proposals and that dialogue will be held in order to resolve the Lockerbie crisis.
The British proposal, she said, is merely an encouraging start for dialogue, in contrast with the refusal in the past to discuss any Arab proposal concerning Lockerbie.
In the same context Libyan sources have noted that there are "reassuring factors and changes in British foreign policy," not only with regard to the Arab region and its issues, but also with regard to reducing the subservience to the United States.
An Arab stand is expected to be adopted at the end of this month on the British proposal to resolve the Lockerbie crisis.
London Press Association in English 0757 GMT 20 Sep 97
Subslug: By David Cracknell, Political Correspondent, PA News
The father of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing said today that he did not believe reports that the Government had given up on trying to bring those responsible to trial. Dr Jim Swire, said senior ministers had made it clear to him as recently as this week that they were minded to continue the pursuit.
His comments come after reports that unnamed Government sources have said ministers have given up hope of ever bringing a prosecution against the two Libyans who are accused of the bombing.
Dr Swire said that, while the Government may have given up hope of securing a trial of the two accused in Scotland or America, they would instead be looking to see a trial in a neutral country.
In August Dr Swire went to Libya with Liberal Democrat peer Lord Steel to discuss a way of facilitating a trial in a neutral country. "We've been talking to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and a number of other senior Government members right up until as late as Thursday.
"And if the Government has suddenly decided it's not going to go ahead with this, I would have thought that these men, who I regard with great affection -- particularly John Prescott, who I've known for some time -- would at the very least give us a ring and say, `look, we're going to rub out the idea of going for
trial.'
"So I think what they must be saying is: `we've given up on trial in Scotland. If that's the case, let's turn our attention to having a trial in a neutral country."
Dr Swire said he urged Mr Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, to pursue a fresh and thorough inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing on Thursday. "I'm not going to give up," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Read more about Jim Swire and his efforts.
October 22-23 TRIPOLI (Reuters) - South African President Nelson Mandela, sternly dismissing U.S. reservations about his mission, arrived in Libya on Wednesday for a visit
described by diplomats as the most important for Muammar Gaddafi since the United Nations clamped sanctions on his nation in 1992.
20.10.1997 Scotland - CROWN OFFICE
18 October 1997 UNITED NATIONS -- Apparently encouraged by African and Asian support for its campaign to have U.N. sanctions lifted, Libya is lobbying the families of people
killed in the explosion of a Pan Am jet over Scotland in 1988 in the hope of persuading them to settle the case, the mother of one victim says.
U.S. blocks officials from speaking to Pan Am 103 relatives group
New case in front of the International Court of Justice!Everything about the ongoing case in Haag! (13-22. october 1997)
17 October 1997:
Lester Coleman claims all his stories were just lies and made up by himself.
Press here to read ALL about the verdict and Lester Coleman
"Libya has no problem with the UN"
30th September 1997
Read Ambassador Dorda's full speech to the UN General Assembly 25/09/1997
Libyan ambassador to Arab League speaks out
Fhima and Megrahi giving interview on TV - read what they said about Pan Am 103
From 24/9/1997
Jim Swire has not given up hope
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