DATE=10/24/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-268372

TITLE=LOCKERBIE / ADJOURNMENT (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=LAUREN COMITEAU

DATELINE=THE HAGUE

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: There is another adjournment (Tuesday) in the long-running murder trial of two Libyans charged with blowing up a Pan Am plane 12 years ago over Lockerbie, Scotland. Lawyers at the trial in the Netherlands say they have recently received mysterious evidence that could have a dramatic effect on the Lockerbie case. Lauren Comiteau reports from The Hague.

TEXT: Only prosecutors and defense lawyers know what the new evidence is, but it is important enough that judges agreed to give defense lawyers at least another week to investigate it.

Prosecutors have already spent two weeks examining what they call considerably sensitive and relevant new evidence, given to them earlier this month by an unnamed third country. They passed that information - which includes a thick file of documents - on to defense lawyers Monday.

Two Libyans are currently on trial at a Scottish court in the Netherlands for the 1988 bombing. Prosecutors say they were Libyan intelligence agents who put the bomb in a suitcase they checked in at Malta's airport. The bag wound up aboard the New York-bound Pan Am jet. It exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

At the outset of the trial last May, defense lawyers lodged what is called a "special defense." They say the bombing was the work of two Palestinian terrorist groups, not their Libyan clients.

Addressing the judges on Tuesday, William Taylor, a defense lawyer for one of the accused, said the new information could have the greatest conceivable effect on the trial, and on the defense. Mr. Taylor says he needs to carry out investigations on three continents and in at least six countries.

Prosecutors themselves are already questioning six potential witnesses relating to the new evidence. In granting the defense another week to investigate, the presiding judge, Lord Ranald Sutherland, once again expressed his concern about the slow progress of the trial.

When defense lawyer Taylor said he was pessimistic he would even be ready to resume the trial next week, Lord Sutherland said he would need more details before agreeing to another delay. Defense lawyers say they cannot give that information publicly because people's lives could be in danger. (Signed)

NEB/LC/KL/WTW