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)
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Source: Voice of America
.