Date: 11/14/2008
By BEN McCONVILLE
Associated Press Writer
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) _ A court refused Friday to release from prison a cancer-stricken Libyan man convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
The Court of Criminal Appeal in Scotland acknowledged that Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi’s cancer was incurable, but it said he could not be freed on bail pending an appeal of his life sentence for the bombing that killed 270 people, most of them American.
Al-Megrahi’s lawyers argued that their client should be released because he recently was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the disease has spread.
“While the disease from which the appellant suffers is incurable and may cause his death, he is not at present suffering material pain or disability. The full services of the National Health Service are available to him, notwithstanding he is in custody,” the three judges stated in a written opinion. They said if al-Megrahi’s condition worsens, they might reconsider their decision.
Al-Megrahi, 56, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were prosecuted in The Hague in 2001 for the bombing. Fhimah was acquitted.
Al-Megrahi lost one appeal but has been granted another one. The court is expected to hear the second appeal next year.
Al-Megrahi did not appear in court Friday. In a statement released through his legal team, al-Megrahi said, “I am very distressed that the court has refused me bail pending the hearing of my appeal and the chance to spend my remaining time with my family.”
The statement added: “I wish to reiterate that I had nothing whatsoever to do with the Lockerbie bombing and that the fight for justice will continue regardless of whether I am alive to witness my name being cleared.”
The Libyan government has agreed to pay more than $2 billion in compensation to victims’ families as part of leader Moammar Gadhafi’s campaign to end years of international isolation. But doubt remains over who carried out the bombing, Britain’s deadliest terrorist attack.
Al-Megrahi’s lawyers have claimed British and U.S authorities tampered with evidence, ignored witness statements and steered investigators away from evidence that the bombing was an Iranian-financed plot carried out by Palestinians to avenge the shooting down of a civilian Iranian airliner by U.S forces several months earlier.
Relatives of the victims of Pan Am 103 were divided over al-Megrahi’s conviction. Some British families have said they think he is innocent, but relatives of U.S. victims have said he is guilty and should remain in jail.
Dr. Jim Swire, a spokesman for a group of the British relatives, said it was “tragic” that Scottish justice had “missed a golden opportunity to display mercy.” Swire’s daughter, Flora, 24, was a passenger on the downed flight.
But Bob Monetti, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, whose son Rick was killed, told the BBC before the judgment that al-Megrahi should remain in jail. “I have been really upset because most of the people in Scotland seem to have a different opinion on the whole thing,” he said.
Dan Cohen of New Jersey, whose daughter Theodora was aboard flight 103, said he was “extremely relieved” at the judges’ decision.
“This is a very tough anniversary coming up — the 20th — and it is very important that he will still be in jail for it,” Cohen said.
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Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
Judgment: http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2008HCJAC68.html
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
US transfers Libyan money to Lockerbie victims
Date: 11/9/2008
By MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writer
SHANNON, Ireland (AP) _ The U.S. said Sunday it has begun transferring more than $500 million in Libyan compensation money to the families of American victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
More money is on the way to complete the settlement, but $504 million of $536 million to be distributed to the families was moved from the Treasury to a private account administered by Lockerbie families’ lawyers on Friday, the top U.S. diplomat for the Mideast said.
David Welch spoke to reporters aboard Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s plane as she returned to Washington from the Middle East. He said he expected the rest of the Lockerbie payments would be made soon as soon as administrative details were worked out.
The cash comes from a $1.5 billion fund for U.S. victims of Libyan-linked terrorism in the 1980s that Libya finished paying into last month.
In addition to paying compensation for the Lockerbie victims, the fund will distribute an additional $283 million to the victims and families of victims of a 1986 attack on a Berlin disco. The remainder will go to settle claims for other deaths, injuries and damage caused by Libyan agents.
Welch could not say when those transfers would take place, but that any “delays are pretty much administrative in nature.”
The United States and Libya completed a comprehensive agreement this year to settle all terrorism-related claims from the 1980s. Welch negotiated the agreement.
Under the deal, $1.5 billion will go to American victims and their families. Some $300 million will go the Libyan victims and families of U.S. airstrikes in Libya ordered in retaliation for the bombing of Berlin’s La Belle disco in 1986.
Libya has not said where its portion of the money came from. The Bush administration insists that no U.S. taxpayer money will be used to pay the American portion.
Libya’s payment into the fund cleared the last hurdle in full normalization of ties between Washington and Tripoli. On Oct. 31, President Bush signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government’s immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases.
U.S.-Libyan relations reached a low in the 1980s but began to improve after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi — whom President Reagan called the “mad dog of the Middle East” — renounced weapons of mass destruction and terrorism in 2003.
The rapprochement stalled after Libya halted payments to the families of Lockerbie victims under a previous compensation deal. But it picked up again in August when Libya and the United States agreed to a new, comprehensive package that would cover compensation for all the 1980s-era claims.
All 269 passengers and crew, including 180 Americans, on the Pan Am flight and 11 people on the ground were killed in the Lockerbie bombing. Three people, including two American soldiers, were killed and 230 wounded in the Berlin disco attack. That attack prompted Reagan to order airstrikes on targets in Tripoli and Benghazi that Libyans say killed 41 people, including Gadhafi’s adopted daughter.
There has been a huge increase in interest from U.S. firms, particularly in the energy sector, in doing business in Libya, where European companies have had much greater access in recent years. Libya’s proven oil reserves are the ninth largest in the world, close to 39 billion barrels, and vast areas remain unexplored for new deposits.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writer
SHANNON, Ireland (AP) _ The U.S. said Sunday it has begun transferring more than $500 million in Libyan compensation money to the families of American victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
More money is on the way to complete the settlement, but $504 million of $536 million to be distributed to the families was moved from the Treasury to a private account administered by Lockerbie families’ lawyers on Friday, the top U.S. diplomat for the Mideast said.
David Welch spoke to reporters aboard Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s plane as she returned to Washington from the Middle East. He said he expected the rest of the Lockerbie payments would be made soon as soon as administrative details were worked out.
The cash comes from a $1.5 billion fund for U.S. victims of Libyan-linked terrorism in the 1980s that Libya finished paying into last month.
In addition to paying compensation for the Lockerbie victims, the fund will distribute an additional $283 million to the victims and families of victims of a 1986 attack on a Berlin disco. The remainder will go to settle claims for other deaths, injuries and damage caused by Libyan agents.
Welch could not say when those transfers would take place, but that any “delays are pretty much administrative in nature.”
The United States and Libya completed a comprehensive agreement this year to settle all terrorism-related claims from the 1980s. Welch negotiated the agreement.
Under the deal, $1.5 billion will go to American victims and their families. Some $300 million will go the Libyan victims and families of U.S. airstrikes in Libya ordered in retaliation for the bombing of Berlin’s La Belle disco in 1986.
Libya has not said where its portion of the money came from. The Bush administration insists that no U.S. taxpayer money will be used to pay the American portion.
Libya’s payment into the fund cleared the last hurdle in full normalization of ties between Washington and Tripoli. On Oct. 31, President Bush signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government’s immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases.
U.S.-Libyan relations reached a low in the 1980s but began to improve after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi — whom President Reagan called the “mad dog of the Middle East” — renounced weapons of mass destruction and terrorism in 2003.
The rapprochement stalled after Libya halted payments to the families of Lockerbie victims under a previous compensation deal. But it picked up again in August when Libya and the United States agreed to a new, comprehensive package that would cover compensation for all the 1980s-era claims.
All 269 passengers and crew, including 180 Americans, on the Pan Am flight and 11 people on the ground were killed in the Lockerbie bombing. Three people, including two American soldiers, were killed and 230 wounded in the Berlin disco attack. That attack prompted Reagan to order airstrikes on targets in Tripoli and Benghazi that Libyans say killed 41 people, including Gadhafi’s adopted daughter.
There has been a huge increase in interest from U.S. firms, particularly in the energy sector, in doing business in Libya, where European companies have had much greater access in recent years. Libya’s proven oil reserves are the ninth largest in the world, close to 39 billion barrels, and vast areas remain unexplored for new deposits.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
