Gadhafi criticizes Pan Am 103 verdict

Gadhafi makes his remarks at a news conference in Tripoli, Libya, on Monday

In this story: The suitcase Gadhafi: 'I will not bow to pressure' Victims' relatives to sue Libya RELATED STORIES, SITES

TRIPOLI, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Monday denounced a court verdict convicting a Libyan national of murder in the downing of Pan Am Flight 103.

On January 31 a special Scottish court sitting at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands convicted Abdel Baset al-Megrahi of the 1988 murders of 259 people on board the Boeing 747 and 11 people in the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

The second defendant in the case, Libyan Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted and returned home to a hero's welcome on Thursday.

"They found a middle solution," Gadhafi said during a news conference Monday in Tripoli. "So they sentenced one and they released the other because this would make Libya happy and with it the Arab world and Africa and ... give some credibility to the Western Christian justice system. Accusing one then saves America's and Britain's face."

The suitcase

Gadhafi cast doubt on the main portion of the prosecution's case: a suitcase that Megrahi allegedly had used to hide a bomb. Both defendants denied placing a bomb in the suitcase at Malta and tagging it at an airport there to join Flight 103 at Frankfurt, Germany, heading via London for New York.

"The judges could not confirm that the suitcase that left Malta contained a bomb," the Libyan leader said. "Then they passed a sentence based on that suitcase. This is clear: it is a political judgment."

Despite Gadhafi's claims last week that he would reveal on Monday "evidence" that would prove Megrahi's innocence, there was none.

Gadhafi: 'I will not bow to pressure'

The United States has refused to support the lifting U.N sanctions against Libya until Libya accepts responsibility for the bombing.

The sanctions were imposed in 1992 and suspended -- but not lifted -- in April 1999 when the two suspects were handed over to the U.N. for trial.

"The whole world is shaking... this is a battle," Gadhafi said. "I want to show the truth. I don't want anything else. I am prepared for confrontation. Planes attacked me. I will not bow to pressure."

Those who blamed the Libyans for the Flight 103 attack theorized that Libya sought revenge for the U.S. bombing of Tripoli, the Libyan capital, and Benghazi, a seaport, in 1986. Then-President Ronald Reagan ordered the bombings in retaliation for the bombing of a Berlin nightclub where U.S. military personnel were killed.

Victims' relatives to sue Libya

Relatives of the U.S. victims of the bombing said on Friday that they would file a civil lawsuit against Libya for up to $10 billion in light of the guilty verdict against Megrahi.

Their lawyer, Lee Kreindler, said the written judgment concluded that what Megrahi did was in concert with the Libyan government.

"He was a fairly high-ranking officer in the Libyan Intelligence Agency and his activities appeared to have, and can be reasoned to have, government involvement," Kreindler said on Saturday.

CNN Correspondent Brent Sadler contributed to this report.

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Libya Online
Lockerbie Trial Briefing
U.N. Security Council

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