DATE=5/3/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=LOCKERBIE TRIAL (L)
NUMBER=2-261935
BYLINE=RON PEMSTEIN
DATELINE=CAMP ZEIST
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The terrorism trial of two Libyan suspects has
opened in central Netherlands. They are accused of
bombing Pan Am flight 103 in December of 1988, an
explosion that killed 270 people. V-O-A's Ron Pemstein
attended the opening of the trial at Camp Zeist,
Holland and sends this report.
TEXT: The accused Libyan intelligence officers
entered the court dressed in red caps and wearing
white robes. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi wore a red vest
and took notes during the 20-minute reading of the
indictment against him. His co-defendant, Al-Amin
Khalifa Fahimah, wore a striped vest and did not take
notes.
Elizabeth Philipps, whose 20 year old daughter, Sarah,
was a passenger on the doomed Pan Am flight, scoffed
at the Libyans' appearance on the other side of
bulletproof glass. The American woman is convinced
these Libyans suspects are the right people on trial.
She dismisses their defense lawyers' contention that
Palestinians were responsible for putting the bomb
aboard the airplane.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,
General Command is one of the organizations named by
the defense lawyers along with individuals whose
addresses are unknown.
Glasgow University Law Professor, Jim Murdoch, says
the defense does not have to prove its contention.
/// Murdoch Act ///
And the basic principle here is there is no
responsibility on the defense to prove its
defense. It is a special defense, only in the
sense that prior notice has to be given but
there is no onus on the defense to prove, it
merely allows another element to come in to this
question, ultimately -- whether the crown --
whether the public prosecutor, has established
his case beyond a reasonable doubt.
/// End Act ///
Mrs. Philipps says there is no reason the governments
of the United States, Britain and Scotland should
ignore the Palestinians as possible suspects in her
daughter Sarah's death. Her husband, Ervin, did not
come to the Netherlands for the trial. In a mirror
image of the division among the victims' relatives, he
disagrees with his wife. He believes that the
governments are concealing what they know about
responsibility for the loss of their daughter.
It will be a long road until the Lockerbie trial
produces evidence to convince Ervin Philipps that the
mystery of Pan Am flight 103 will be solved.
The first prosecution witness was Richard Dawson, an
air traffic controller at London's Heathrow Airport.
He described the aviation procedures that accompanied
the Pan Am airplane's doomed flight from London to the
explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland. He was the first
of what the prosecution expects will be one-thousand
witnesses.
Fraser Anderson, another Glasgow University law
professor, says evidence rules in Scotland are so
strict all one-thousand may testify.
/// Anderson Act ///
If the crown [EDS: public prosecutor] decides
that it needs to call all its witnesses, then it
may decide not to call all one-thousand. But if
it does, then, yes, you will see one-thousand
people plus the defense witnesses.
/// End Act ///
Though this is a Scottish court, the trial is being
held in the Netherlands as a condition of the
agreement with Libya to allow the two suspects to be
tried for the Lockerbie bombing. They are charged
with murder, conspiracy to murder and the destruction
of an aircraft. A verdict is not expected before next
year. (Signed)
NEB/RP/GE/ENE/JP
03-May-2000 11:40 AM EDT (03-May-2000 1540 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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