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)
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Source: Voice of America
.