8 - 14 February 2001
Issue No.520
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 8 - 14 February 2001 Issue No.520 |
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Unanswered questions
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in his first detailed public reaction to the judgement following the Lockerbie bombing trial, has condemned the verdict with a claim that it reflected massive injustice. The three Scottish judges, after a nine-month special trial held at a former US military base in the Netherlands, had convicted a Libyan, Abdel-Baset Al-Megrahi, to a minimum of 20 years' imprisonment for planting the bomb aboard Pan Am 103 in December 1988 which killed 270 people. A second suspect, Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted and allowed to return to Tripoli, where Gaddafi gave him a hero's welcome.
Gaddafi lashes out during a news conference in Tripoli on Monday over the Lockerbie sentence
(photo: Reuters)
Gaddafi made a point of receiving Fhimah at his home in Tripoli, which was badly damaged following a US air raid in 1986. At least 40 Libyan civilians, including Gaddafi's adopted daughter, were killed in the raid ordered by former US President Ronald Regan in revenge for Libya's alleged involvement in the bombing of a night club in Germany frequented by American soldiers. At the reception, Gaddafi said he would announce new evidence to prove Al-Megrahi's innocence, "leaving no choice for the judges except to commit suicide, resign or admit they made a mistake." He added that sanctions imposed against his country in 1992 after it refused to send the two suspects for trial in either the US or Britain must immediately be lifted. The sanctions were suspended in April 1999 after the suspects were handed over for trial in the Netherlands.
Yet, in his two-hour speech and news conference on Monday, Gaddafi failed to produce any new evidence. He concentrated instead on criticising the verdicts and the way they were based primarily on circumstantial evidence, as the judges themselves admitted in a 82-page memorandum. Observers speculated that the Libyan leader would reveal a document which proved the involvement of a radical Palestinian group based in Damascus in the Lockerbie bombing. Gaddafi, in his speech, said the investigation carried out in the case was not neutral, depending mainly on information provided by US and British intelligence. He added that Al-Megrahi had only been found guilty because the Americans and the British needed a scapegoat to prevent them from looking incompetent before the families of the victims.
"Abdel-Baset is innocent," he said. "No formal proof has been made against him. We thus consider him abducted and taken hostage to terrorise and blackmail the Libyan people." He called on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, South African statesman Nelson Mandela and Saudi Arabia (who mediated the arrangements for the trial in the Netherlands) to work for his release and lift the sanctions.
The call for lifting sanctions received backing from the Arab League, the Organisation of African Unity, the Non-Alignment Movement and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. However, the US and Britain have said they oppose the immediate lifting of sanctions, insisting that Libya must first accept responsibility for the bombing and pay compensation to the families of the victims.
However, Gaddafi said his country would not pay any compensation until the US also compensated victims of the air raids against his own country, and similar raids all over the world. Libyan officials also pointed out that it was still too early to discuss compensation, saying that the families should wait until a Scottish appeals court -- this time made up of a panel of five judges rather than three -- gave the final word on whether or not Al-Megrahi was innocent.
A leading Scottish law professor, who was the first to suggest the compromise of holding a special Scottish tribunal in the Netherlands to break the deadlock over Libya's refusal to hand over the suspects to either the US or Britain, also expressed surprise that the judges had found Al-Megrahi guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Professor Robert Black was quoted as saying he was "absolutely astounded" that Al-Megrahi had been found guilty. He 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 judges, in explaining their verdict, admitted that they were "aware that in relation to certain aspects of the case there are a number of uncertainties and qualifications." But they said they were satisfied that the evidence "does fit together to form a real and convincing pattern."
The families of the victims, especially those in the US, said they would not rest until charges were brought against Gaddafi personally. Recalling that Al-Megrahi was a former Libyan intelligence officer, representatives of the families said the case must not be closed, and that those who ordered the bombing in the top ranks of the Libyan government must also be sent to trial. However, a spokesman for the British and US governments adopted a more conciliatory tone, saying there was no evidence at this stage to bring new suspects to trial. This led observers to believe that the deal merged with South African and Saudi mediatiors suggesting that the case be closed down after the court released its ruling, and regardless of the verdict. Scotland's senior law officer, Lord Advocate Colin Boyd, said he has no plans for further criminal proceedings against other Libyans because of lack of evidence.
"I think Al-Megrahi killed my son. I'm sorry Mr Fhimah walked free. This links the Libyan government to the death of 270 people," said Peter Lowenstein, who lost his son, Alexander. "They have pinpointed the jokers in the pack, now we want the kings," said Betty Thomas, whose daughter and granddaughter died at Lockerbie. "I don't want Gaddafi to be let off the hook here," said Helen Engelhart, who lost her husband. Lawyers of the American families say they would launch a civil action which could involve damages totalling 10 billion dollars.
Reactions of the British relatives were quite different from those of the Americans. Their spokesman Jim Swire, who lost his daughter in the crash, fainted in the courtroom after hearing the verdict, but he was well enough to tell the press a day later that he wanted a public inquiry into "unanswered questions" about the disaster. How.for instance, a suitcase with explosives could have been smuggled on board Pan Am 103 when several bomb warnings were circulating at the time -- including one focusing on the risk of a bomb inside a Toshiba radio cassette recorder. The Lockerbie bomb was hidden in such a recorder, investigators said. Swire and his group want the politicians then in power to be called in to explain exactly what they knew in 1988, with then Prime Minister Margret Thatcher as a key witness. One of the British relatives said of the verdict: "We have our doubts about the guilt of Al-Megrahi and that will have to remain the subject of an appeal."
In a message sent through his brother, Mohamed, Al-Megrahi made it clear he felt trapped between Libya and the US. "My brother can't sleep," Mohamed says. "Not because he is guilty, but because he has been declared guilty of the killing of all those innocent people. He wants to talk to the families of the victims to show his grief. He doesn't want to be sacrificed; he feels he is being used to make Libya pay damages."
For days, thousands of people have been demonstrating in the Libyan capital against the Camp Zeist verdict. They condemned what they called a 'CIA-dictated' verdict. "Scottish judge, you must commit suicide because your verdict is shameful," read one of the placards carried to the UN headquarters in Tripoli. Amongst the demonstrators was Abdel-Baset Al-Megrahi's 15-year-old son Khaled, holding a placard reading: "My father is innocent." Khaled's grandmother had to be taken to hospital with heart problems after hearing the verdict.
Fhimah, meanwhile, made it clear that if there were talk of damages, he was in for some, too. He would seek compensation from the US and Britain for material and psychological damages. "The last 10 years have had a deeply negative effect on us and our families." He also said he planned to set up and personally fund a foundation for "victims of the CIA" around the world.
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