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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 16 - 22 November 2000 Issue No.508 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 16 - 22 November 2000 Issue No.508
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters My enemy's enemy
By Rasha Saad
New evidence is threatening to destroy the case by the Scottish Crown against the two Libyans accused of bombing a PanAm-Boeing over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people. The evidence the defence has gathered and is still sifting through points the finger away from the Libyans, and towards a Syrian-based Palestinian radical group who has allegedly carried out the terrorist act at Iran's behest. Syria has been officially asked by the special Lockerbie court in the Netherlands to hand over some crucial information on members of that group.
Last week, the prosecution finished presenting its evidence against Abdel-Basset Al-Maqrihi, 48, and Lamine Khalifa Fhimah, 44. Yet none of the nearly 300 witnesses summoned since the trial started in May came up with any direct evidence that the two men did indeed put a suitcase with a bomb on board of a plane in Malta, which was later transferred in Frankfurt to the ill-fated PanAm-flight 103. The last witness called by the Crown to the court in Kamp Zeist was a Palestinian whose testimony is vital to the case the defence is trying to build. Egyptian-born Palestinian Mohamed Abu Taleb, 46, admitted in front of the court last week that he has been active in the Palestinian struggle since 1974, and a member of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) since 1976. He is currently serving a life sentence in Sweden for attacks against Jewish and American targets in the late 1980s.
The prosecution repeatedly pointed out that Abu Taleb had an alibi for the night of the bombing: on 22 December 1988 he was allegedly at home looking after his two young children, while his wife was at the hospital with her sister-in-law, who was giving birth. Defence lawyer William Taylor has told the court he will be recalling Abu Taleb for cross-examination "at such time as we procure the information we need." The defence has refused requests for further court adjournments to collect this information before hearing Abu Taleb. The information Taylor referred to concerns at least three countries: Syria, Germany and Norway.
The new details coming from Syria concern the route of the suitcase before it was loaded onto PanAm 103, Taylor said. He added that the suitcase carrying the bomb did not start its journey in Malta, but rather from Damascus on board of Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. There, it was allegedly transferred to PanAm 103. According to the defence case, this information supposedly emerged during a meeting early October between Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
However, certain pages of the new information presented to the court in Kamp Zeist were missing, and both the prosecution and defence were trying to determine whether they were genuine. For this reason, Syria has been formally asked to provide more information.
This information is essential for the case the defence is trying to make - and that kept researchers busy until 1991, when the attention switched to the Libyans. The theory the defence will try to prove is that the bombing was an Iranian act of revenge for the American rocket attack against an Iranian airplane in the Gulf six months before the Lockerbie bombing, killing 290 Iranian citizens. The defence added that members of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) did the work. This theory is partly based on the fact that the German police arrested in October 1988 _ in an operation codenamed 'Autumn Leaves' _ several Palestinians, and discovered weapons and explosives. They found four bombs hidden in a 'bombeat ' _ Toshiba cassette player _ very similar to the bomb used in Lockerbie. The bombmaker told the police then he had made five of these, leading to the theory that the fifth was used later to blow up the PanAm airplane.
Some of the information now being checked at the Lockerbie trial comes from the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, press reports here said.
The London Sunday Times recently revealed that five Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Norway have presented alleged evidence on the Palestinian connection to the Lockerbie bombing. These former members of the PFLP-GC have told the Norwegian police that their organisation planted the bomb, and that their main bombmaker, Mobdi Goben, nicknamed 'the professor', was involved. Goben, who was killed a few years ago, lived in Belgrade in the late 1980s and was allegedly involved in a number of terrorist attacks in Europe.
At the same time, the Swedish press has also reported on two new witnesses the defence is planning to invite to Kamp Zeist. One of them is a Swede of Arab origin who lived in Germany at the time of the 'Autumn Leaves' operation. According to the Swedish paper Aftonbladet, the witness was among those arrested in 1988 when the German police found the four 'bombeat'-bombs in his apartment. He is supposed to have had ties with the PFLP-GC, as is said of a second Swedish witness. It is believed that the defence is planning to co-indict these two, together with Mohamed Abu Taleb, for abetting the crime.
Although the defence only needs to raise a reasonable doubt in favour of their clients, it promised at the start of the trial in May to present proof that Palestinians were in fact behind the bombing.
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