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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Features Interview Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Guaranteeing a fair trial
By Aisha Abdel-GhaffarUnder the watchful eyes of international observers -- not to mention international public opinion -- the second week of the Lockerbie trial saw an extensive review of the material evidence in the case.
Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly, Nabil El-Arabi, former Egyptian ambassador to the UN and the current Arab League observer at the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands, said that one of his main tasks is to make clear the considerable international concern that the trial be fair.
After Libya rejected the suggestion by the US and Britain that the trial be held in one of the two countries, considerable debate ensued. However, following extensive lobbying by Arab, African and non-aligned countries, the UN Security Council decided, one year ago, that the trial of the two Libyan suspects in the case, Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi and Lamine Khalifa, would be held in the Netherlands.
The Security Council resolution approved a year ago, backed by Arab and African countries, also asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint five international organisations to observe the trial. These organisations are the Arab League, the Organisation of African Unity, the Non-Alignment Movement, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the European Union.
El-Arabi said that the five observers were planning to hold a meeting at Camp Zeist, formerly a US air base in the Netherlands where a Scottish court opened the trial on 3 May. After attending the opening session of the trial, El-Arabi returned to Cairo to present a report on the proceedings of the trial to Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid.
Trial proceedings this week have focussed on testimony by the Scottish police involved in collecting the wreckage and debris from the PanAm aircraft. They recounted the process by which tens of thousands of pieces of the aircraft and personal possessions scattered over 2,000 square kilometres were gathered and sorted. The defence implied that items may have been mislabelled, removed without authorisation, contaminated or even tampered with.
Scottish police officer Douglas Roxburgh, while being questioned by Khalifa's lawyer, said that he had raised concerns with superiors about the possibility of missing evidence in the early days of the investigation. Roxburgh, who supervised a collection point, said he had noticed that "someone had removed property where there had been traces of explosion."
The prosecution will try to prove that one of 20 bomb timers bought by Libya from a Swiss firm was used to trigger the device which blew up the Boeing 747 in mid-air, killing all 259 people on board and 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie on the ground. Prosecutors claim one of the accused bought clothing to pack the suitcase which contained the bomb timer allegedly hidden in a tape recorder.
Al-Megrahi's and Khalifa's lawyers said on the opening day of the trial blamed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and the obscure Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPFS) for the bombing.
The burden of proof is not on the Libyans' defence team, however. Under Scottish law, they are only required to cast reasonable doubt on the prosecution's case.
