Wreckage from the 1988 Pan Am bombing
The two Libyans suspected of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 have been brought before a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. Both of them are being formally charged and committed for trial. The two men were held overnight by Scottish police at a disused Dutch airbase. They were flown from Tripoli yesterday after being handed over to British authorities in the Netherlands yesterday.
The two former intelligence agents face charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and breaching air security. They are accused of placing a bomb on the Pan Am jetliner which exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. Two hundred and seventy people, mainly Americans, were killed in the bombing.
Daniel Cohen, whose only child Theodora was one of those killed, said today that he believes the trial will be "political theatre rather than justice". However, the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has said he is confident the two men will receive a fair trail. The United Nations has suspended sanctions against Libya but the State Department in Washington has said American sanctions will continue for the time being.
