DATE=8/23/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=LOCKERBIE TRIAL (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-265776
BYLINE=RON PEMSTEIN
DATELINE=CAMP ZEIST
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The appearance of the key witness in the trial
of two Libyan suspects in the bombing of a Pan Am
airliner in 1988 has been delayed. Ron Pemstein
reports from the trial site in Camp Zeist, the
Netherlands that his testimony was postponed while the
U-S Central Intelligence Agency attempts to satisfy
the defense's request for documents.
TEXT: The Central Intelligence Agency documents
concern a Libyan defector who is expected to give
crucial evidence against the two Libyans on trial
here. When the trial resumed after a summer recess on
Tuesday, the defense lawyers complained that documents
concerning Abdul Majid - also known as Ghaka - have
been made available in full to the prosecution but the
copies seen by the defense had been heavily edited.
Prosecutor Alastair Campell has told the court that
good progress has been made in convincing the C-I-A to
provide the trial with a fresh version of 25 cables
before Mr. Majid testifies. His testimony is now
expected to start on Monday after the defense studies
new documents with fewer deletions.
Mr. Majid, a former Libyan intelligence officer,
worked as an assistant manager of the Libyan Arab
Airways office in Malta. He was also a double agent
for the C-I-A. The prosecution charges that the two
Libyan defendants were also intelligence officers and
that they used their positions at the airline to place
a bomb in a suitcase in Malta that was later
transferred to the doomed Pan Am airliner. The plane
exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21st,
1988, killing 270 people.
When Mr. Majid testifies his face will be hidden from
spectators and his voice will be disguised. He started
working for the C-I-A in Malta in August 1988 and
later moved to the United States. He lives there under
an assumed name, protected by the U-S Government's
witness-protection program.
The Scottish court sitting here in the Netherlands has
no authority to command a foreign intelligence service
such as the C-I-A to reveal anything. But the U-S
government does not want to undermine a trial of two
Libyans accused of killing Americans. Two thirds of
the victims of the Pan Am explosion were U-S citizens.
The defense lawyers charged their clients' right to a
fair trial would he violated if they did not have full
access to the C-I-A cables. While they recognize
certain portions of the cables concern code names, the
defense says it needs full details about payments made
to Mr. Majid by the C-I-A and to assess the quality of
information he provided in return.
Until Mr. Majid appears - in disguise - the trial
continues with technical witnesses from airports in
Malta, Germany and Britain. (Signed)
NEB/RP/GE/FC
23-Aug-2000 09:09 AM EDT (23-Aug-2000 1309 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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