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Lockerbie Trial
05/02/2001 *** updated: 16/02/2001
This page will keep you informed about the latest news of Gadhafi´s press conference regarding the verdict in the Lockerbie case - and the "new" lawyer Ibrahim Legwell.Come and join the discussion: was the verdict fair and legal ?
And who was behind the crash of Pan Am 103 ? Raise YOUR opinion and interact with otehrs !
05/02/2001:
Libya attacks Lockerbie injustice - lawyer Legwell back on defence team
TUNIS, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has condemned the verdict in the Lockerbie bombing trial as an "injustice". Colonel Gaddafi made his comments during his first detailed reaction to the verdict, in which a Libyan man, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, was found guilty of the 1988 bombing which left 270 people dead.
In a speech that has so far lasted nearly two hours, the Libyan leader said the United States and Britain had blamed his country for political reasons and that the investigation before the trial had not been neutral. Colonel Gaddafi had promised to provide new evidence which would clear Al Megrahi of the bombing. However, the Libyan leader has not so far offered any new evidence. Instead he delivered a scathing attack on the United States and its policy on Libya.
Colonel Gaddafi also referred to questions raised by various legal experts about the verdict, in some cases quoting them. He outlined in some detail what he thought were the legal weaknesses in the case against Al Megrahi. In the statement, delivered in the form of a long and rambling lecture, full of rhetorical flourishes, Colonel Gaddafi characterised the Lockerbie case as a chapter in the struggle between good and evil.
A BBC correspondent in Tripoli, Frank Gardner, says that while Colonel Gaddafi's speech was long on anti-Western rhetoric it is unlikely to unsettle the British or US governments. But it does appear to show that Libya is determined to fight the Lockerbie verdict. During the first two hours of his speech, he ridiculed the case as ``very funny and a farce.'' Holding paperwork containing the judges' decision and evidence, Gadhafi said the court acted under British and U.S. pressure and came up with a verdict that was ``a compromise.''
``They said 'Let's convict one of them ... and acquit the other,''' Gadhafi said. ``This will please Libya and its supporters .... and give credibility to the Western, Christian judiciary and please the families of the victims.'' Gadhafi began his speech at sunset. Dressed in electric blue robes with a matching cap, the Libyan leader sat at a desk placed on a rug in front of the shell-pocked ruins of a home on his palace grounds. Posters of the victims behind Gadhafi read: ``This is Reagan's candy to the children'' and ``This is the result of American terrorism.''
Colonel Gaddafi did make a specific, new charge against the British police who investigated the bombing. He said that the investigators had planted clothes in the wreckage of the plane that were later crucial in linking Al Megrahi to the crime. The Libyan leader was speaking in Tripoli in front of a building preserved to show damage caused by the United States' aerial bombardment of targets in Tripoli and Libya's second city, Benghazi in 1986. Around hundred people died in the attacks, including Gaddafi's daughter. Behind the podium, one could see a statue of a giant fist, quenching the tail of an American fighter jetplane. This statue was created in 1987 from the re-melted remains of one of the US fighter planes, shot down by the Libyans suring the attack.
Not many journalists were present during tonights session with Gaddafi. Journalists in Tripoli were not given a time or place for Gaddafi's speech in advance and were taken to the site by bus. Several of them seemed disappointed after a short while, since no "explosive" evidence seemed to appear. They left their chairs and strolled around chatting with each other.
Gadhafi repeatedly pointed at the building behind him, and asked why the victims of the American bombing were not being compensated. "Libya had to be accused [of Lockerbie], otherwise America and Britain would be embarrassed in front of the whole world and then would face huge compensation bills from the Libyan people," Colonel Gaddafi said.
Mr Gaddafi said that he considered that Al Megrahi, who is in custody in the Netherlands pending an expected appeal, was being held hostage. "Abdelbaset is innocent; no formal proof has been made against him. We thus consider him abducted and taken hostage to terrorise the Libyan people and to blackmail them even more," Colonel Gaddafi said.
Gadhafi called on UN Secretary-General and the UN General Assembly to work for the release of this "hostage". "Libya was innocent of Lockerbie," said Gaddafi. "But Libya had to be accused, otherwise America and Britain would be embarrassed in front of the whole world and then would face huge compensation bills from the Libyan people," he added, in a reference to the 1986 Anglo- American bombing raid on Libya which killed several people, i.
U.S. investigators had manipulated the evidence put before the Lockerbie trial, Gaddafi said. Megrahi's co- accused Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima had been deliberately acquitted of the bombing as part of a political scheme. Fahima's acquittal "would give some credibility to the Western Christian justice system," the Libyan leader explained. "The Western public should know this, because it is being misled," said Gaddafi.
"We want to inform Western public opinion and I don't care if they send Western warplanes to attack my family," he said. Gaddafi said the case against Megrahi had required that he take the bomb bag to Malta, Germany and Britain all in one day. "How is it possible for one person do all these things in one day and in three different places?" Gaddafi said. "The world will laugh at components (of evidence) which are very silly and not based on proof."
Libyan press and media
Libyans aged 18 and over deserted schools, universities, factories and offices on Monday to attend the so- called popular basic committees scheduled to discuss government policy for 2001 including the budget. But the overwhelming theme at the meetings was the Lockerbie verdict, which has already brought large-scale popular protests. Speaker after speaker at the conferences told participants that Gaddafi would reveal evidence proving the innocence of the convicted man. Government-controlled newspapers devoted commentaries and front page stories to Gaddafi's expected statement.The daily Al Mountijine wrote: "What the leader will reveal today will put the truth in front of everybody throughout the world about the innocence of the Libyan." Another newspaper, Al Shams, said: "Libyans trust their leader because they have known him for three decades and are certain that the proof that will be revealed will be crystal clear about (Megrahi's) innocence." "I have proven evidence that (Megrahi) is innocent and I'll reveal the evidence on Monday," Gaddafi told reporters on Thursday at his official residence after greeting Fahima. Gaddafi has demanded that United Nations sanctions imposed on Libya after the bombing be lifted immediately.
Libyans flocked to public meetings on Monday in anticipation of Colonel Gaddafi's statement, leaving the country at an almost complete standstill. The announcement coincides with Libya holding three days of meetings known as basic people's congresses. During his statement, Colonel Gaddafi referred to the opinion of a Scottish legal expert, who said the verdict against Al Megrahi was obtained on "very, very weak" evidence.
Robert Black, the Scottish law professor who devised the format of the Netherlands-based trial, was quoted on Sunday as saying he was "absolutely astounded" that Al Megrahi had been found guilty. Mr Black said he believed the prosecution had "a very, very weak circumstantial case" and he was reluctant to believe that Scottish judges would "convict anyone, even a Libyan" on such evidence. The view, published in British newspapers, echoes that of some of the families of UK victims of the Lockerbie bombing, who are calling for a public inquiry to find "the truth of who was responsible and what the motive was".
News conference
When eventually asked for the promised information, Gadhafi said what he had read and quoted was the ``evidence that was absent'' in the case against two Libyans. ``The world didn't know about these facts. I refuted the whole case, destroyed it,'' he said.Old faces back
At the right to the table, where Gadhafi was delivering his speech, two wellknown lawyers shared the space. The Libyan head of the defence team 8during trial), Mr. Kamel Maghur, was joined by Ibrahim Legwell, the former Libyan head of defence. Legwell - who was ousted as defence lawyer from the team in 1998 - seems to have been brought back into the team after its losing the case for Megrahi.During the 2 hour-session, Gadhafi repeadedly listened to explenations and clarifications from both lawyers sitting on a table to the right.
Legwell was removed from the defence team in 1998 - special report
Kamel Maghur and Ibrahim Legwell advised the Libyan leader verbally during his sessionReactions:
- The United States on Monday mocked and dismissed a lengthy address by Libyan leader Moamar Kadhafi that Tripoli had said would contain revelations proving the innocence of a Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, speaking to reporters while Kadhafi was still speaking, said it made no difference what the Libyan
eader said and questioned the point of the address. "Is it possible to define what he's talking about?" Boucher asked rhetorically."We've seen some of it," he said of the speech, portions of which were aired on American cable television news networks. "It's not clear what his meaning or intent is." Boucher insisted that the only way for Kadhafi to get UN sanctions against his country lifted was to fully comply with Security Council conditions, including that Libya admit responsibility for the bombing of PanAm 103 and pay compensation to the families of the 270 victims.
"It's really up to Libya to meet the requirements of the international community," he said. "Unfortunately, in the remarks we've seen from Mr Kadhafi today, we don't see him doing either of those things."
Interview with Ibrahim Legwell, ex-Lockerbie trial defense lawyer
09/02/2001 ASHARQ AL AWSAT Subslug: Report by Salah Jamil from London: "Al-Ghuwayl: I Am Ready To Return to the Lockerbie Defense if There Are Some Adjustments. Al-Miqrahi Ended Hunger Strike and His Lawyers Refuse To Comment"
by courtesy of Libya News ListDr. Ibrahim al-Ghuwayl, former head of the Libyan team of lawyers that defended Abd-al-Basit al-Miqrahi who was convicted last week in the Lockerbie case and his colleague Al-Amin Khalifah Fahimah who was acquitted by the special Scottish court in the Netherlands, has stressed he is willing to return to the defense team where he was replaced as its head by Kamil al-Maqhur in 1998. Al-Ghuwayl said in a telephone contact with Al-Sharq al-Awsat from Tripoli yesterday that he has his own way for dealing with the case. In a reference to Al-Miqrahi who is preparing an appeal against the life sentence issued against him, he added: "I am ready to serve my country and client if some adjustments are made and some conditions are met."
Al-Ghuwayl sat with Al-Maqhur next to Libyan Leader Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi at last Monday's press conference in Tripoli. He said his presence at that conference "was at the leader's request in my capacity as a legal expert and adviser in this case that I have always followed because it is close to me and I lived with it for seven years. I am one of the few people who have never doubted the innocence of the two Libyan
citizens and Libya." Asked whether he has any criticisms of the way Al-Maqhur's team defended his clients, Al-Ghuwayl said: "I cannot comment on my colleagues' performance. The sentence did however confirm what I had always said, namely, that no matter how much honest the Scottish
judiciary is, judges who come from the same place (Scotland) cannot remain unaffected by the negative coverage of the case and the prior conviction."Regarding Al-Miqrahi's chances in the appeal, Al-Ghuwayl said: "We hope there will be an understanding of the need to repair the damage done to the concept of the judiciary's independence in Scotland." Asked what role he expects to play in the appeal, he said: "This depends on a number of adjustments and conditions. I am always at the service of my client and my country. The possibility of my return does exist."
It is recalled that Al-Ghuwayl was relieved as head of the defense team at the end of September 1998 and replaced with Kamil al-Maqhur. Al-Ghuwayl refused at the time to join his successor's team and opposed from the beginning the idea of a trial before a Scottish court. He argued that this would not guarantee his two clients' right to a fair and honest trial even though three judges replaced the panel of jurors at the Lockerbie trial that was held in Zeist Camp in The Netherlands.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat asked Robert Black, teacher of international law at Edinburgh University, about this development in light of his personal knowledge of Al-Ghuwayl and Al-Maqhur. He said: "I spoke to Al-Ghuwayl several times during the past few days about various aspects of the case." Black, who came out with the proposal of a trial before a Scottish court in a third country, added: "I understood from Al-Ghuwayl's contact with me and the issues he raised that he is returning to the team. But I am not sure in what capacity and whether he will take over leadership of the team from Al-Maqhur." He went on to say: "I had dealt with Al-Ghuwayl in the past and he is a very enthusiastic and competent lawyer. But this does mean that Al-Maqhur is less competent and enthusiastic. I have dealt with both of them and I am ready to continue to cooperate with the defense regardless of who leads it."
Interview with Ibrahim Legwell, February 14, 2001 in Asharq al Awsat
