Wreckage from the 1988 Pan Am bombing
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Move marks the end of 10-year diplomatic stalemate
The United States is to lift sanctions against Libya tomorrow afternoon, following the arrival in the Netherlands of two Libyans suspected of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing. The men will be tried under Scottish law at a disused military airbase near the central Dutch town of Utrecht. They were accompanied by the United Nations deputy secretary general for legal
affairs, Hans Corell.
The two were flown to Rotterdam after being handed over to the UN official in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Libyan state television showed the hand over ceremony at Tripoli's international airport. The two suspects, wearing business suits and looking relaxed, shook hands with foreign diplomats and dignitaries, before boarding a UN plane.
President Clinton has welcomed the handover of the two suspects and said the road to justice has begun. The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook has described it as the end of a ten-year diplomatic stalemate. He has insisted that the two suspects will have a fair trial, saying the Scottish judges would not allow it to become a show trial.
The two former intelligence agents are accused of placing a bomb on the Pan Am jetliner which exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing 270 people - mainly Americans. The hand over deal should end a long-running confrontation between Libya and the international community. It provides for the men to be tried in The Hague under the Scottish legal system once they have gone through formal extradition proceedings. Britain must apply for their "extradition" to a disused military base near the Dutch city of Utrecht which will become British soil during the trial. The two will then face trial under Scottish law before a panel of three Scottish judges.
