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Lockerbie verdict draws closer

VIDEO CNN's Richard Blystone reports the Lockerbie bombing trial is nearing a conclusion Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands -- Prosecutors were due to begin their closing arguments in the case against two Libyans accused of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, as the marathon trial draws to a close.

State prosecutor Colin Boyd was to sum up the case against Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah and Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi on Tuesday.

The pair are accused of planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103 which exploded on December 21, 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

A decision on Monday by al-Megrahi to drop plans to testify in his own defence is likely to prove instrumental in bringing the eight-month hearing closer to a verdict.

A verdict could be rendered as early as next week, court officials said.

Testimony ended abruptly when Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi's lawyer said the Libyan would not appear after Syria refused to hand over a document requested by the defence.

Al-Megrahi and fellow Libyan Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah have pleaded innocent to charges of murder, conspiracy and endangering air safety, which carry a maximum life sentence.

The trial began on May 3. The end of testimony came when hearings resumed on Monday following a one-month adjournment to await the Syrian reply.

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The defence asserted the existence of a document in Damascus containing evidence about a 1988 German police raid on a Palestinian terrorist hide-out -- evidence the defence said could deflect blame from the Libyans.

The defendants' lawyers have introduced evidence indicating the bombing may have been mounted by the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was on Flight 103, welcomed a swift conclusion, even if it fails to clear up the mystery of who blew up the plane.

"The court's purpose is to convict or acquit these two individuals," said Swire, a spokesman for British families of victims. "Our search is for the truth as to who murdered our loved ones."

Prosecutors maintain the bomb was sent via Frankfurt airport from the Mediterranean island of Malta, where the defendants were seen around the time of the bombing.

The court adjourned after a clerk read defence evidence agreed on by both sides.

That evidence included details of the German raid on a suspected Palestinian hide-out near Frankfurt a few months before the Lockerbie bombing, which turned up bomb assemblies similar to the one that blew up Flight 103.

It also linked the individuals arrested in the raid to a series of deadly attacks in the late 1980s in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Targets included a synagogue and a U.S. airline office in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Libyan Mission to the U.N.
Scottish Courts
Lockerbie Trial Briefing

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