NETHERLANDS: DEFENCE LAWYERS BEGIN THEIR FINAL BID TO PROVE THE INNOCENCE OF TWO LIBYANS ACCUSED OF THE LOCKERBIE BOMBING

Record ID: 647010

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: DEFENCE LAWYERS BEGIN THEIR FINAL BID TO PROVE THE INNOCENCE OF TWO LIBYANS ACCUSED OF THE LOCKERBIE BOMBING
  • Date: 11th January 2001
  • Summary: CAMP ZEIST, NETHERLANDS (JANUARY 11, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS EXTERIORS COURTHOUSE 0.12 2. VARIOUS OF SECURITY AT COURTHOUSE (2 SHOTS) 0.23 3. PAN: SUSPECTS MOVING FROM PRISON TO COURTHOUSE IN BLUE VAN 0.39 4. PAN: WILLIAM TAYLOR, DEFENCE LAWYER FOR ABDEL BASSET AL-MEGRAHI ARRIVING AT COURT 0.59 5. PAN: MORE LAWYERS ARRIVING 1.10 6. PAN: RICHARD KEEN (WEARING RED JACKET), DEFENCE LAWYER FOR AL-AMIN KHALIFA FAHIMA ARRIVING AT COURT 1.28 7. PAN: SUSPECTS' FAMILY (INCLUDING WOMAN IN WHITE COAT) ARRIVING AT COURT 1.47 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JIM SWIRE, FATHER OF LOCKERBIE VICTIM, SAYING: "If you look back on how the defence have performed during the trial they have always exploited every tiny niche that they found in the prosecution witnesses statements. I would imagine that they will continue to make quite a weak presentation of their side of the case. They have to persuade the judges that there is reasonable doubt about the verdict of mass murder. I do remind you again sometimes it seems like a jolly circus watching who is coming and going. Actually it's about cold blooded, horrible, brutal mass murder. That's what it's about and the future of these two men's lives are at stake here. In the old day's it would have been a question of whether the judges put their black caps on or not, fortunately it perhaps reduces the judges load a little bit in that they don't have to make the decision about the death penalty. That's what is on trial here, two men for the most brutal murder since the second world war." 2.47 9. MV: SWIRE WALKING INTO COURT 2.52 10. VARIOUS COURT SKETCHES (6 SHOTS) 3.30 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 26th January 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CAMP ZEIST, NETHERLANDS
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Reuters ID: LVA4IZ7YDFQ3S3O76OVON0G7JCPQ
  • Story Text: Defence lawyers in the Netherlands have begun their
    final bid to prove the innocence of two Libyans accused of the
    Lockerbie bombing.


    Lawyers for two Libyans accused of the 1988 Lockerbie
    bombing began spelling out their defence, on Thursday
    (January 11), in their final arguments for the men charged
    with murdering 270 people in the skies over Scotland.

    As the eight-month trial draws to a close, the defence
    will begin closing submissions aimed at sowing in judges'
    minds "sufficient doubt" over the prosecution case to ensure
    Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima walk free.

    That is all the defence need do. The burden is on the
    prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused
    committed murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence in
    the Scots law under which the pair are being tried.

    William Taylor, lawyer for Megrahi, will be the first to
    make his closing arguments to the three-judge panel sitting at
    a special court on a former U.S. airbase in the Netherlands.

    He will be followed by Fahima's counsel Richard Keen, who
    in November asked judges in vain to drop charges against his
    client because there was "no case to answer".

    Speaking outside the courthouse Jim Swire, the father of
    one of the Lockerbie victims, said that he imagined that the
    defence will continue to make a weak presentation of their
    side of the case.

    "They have to persuade the judges that there is reasonable
    doubt about the verdict of mass murder. I do remind you again
    sometimes it seems like a jolly circus watching who is coming
    and going. Actually it's about cold blooded, horrible, brutal
    mass murder. That's what it's about and the future of these
    two men's lives are at stake here," he added.

    The prosecution is going for broke. Though the original
    indictment accused the Libyans of murder, conspiracy to murder
    and violation of aviation security, prosecutors this week
    dropped the two lesser charges to pursue just one count, the
    toughest of all to prove -- murder.

    It is an all-or-nothing strategy viewed as indicating
    prosecutors are confident of a case that even they admit is
    purely circumstantial.


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