Lockerbie trial adjourned due to no-shows by Malta witnesses
by Nikla Gibson
CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands - The prosecution case against two Libyans charged with the 1988 Lockerbie bombing suffered a setback yesterday when a group of witnesses refused to testify. Crown Prosecutor Alistair Campbell told the three presiding judges that, due to the decision of a group of witnesses in Malta, the prosecution would need to restructure presentation of its evidence in discussion with defence counsel and had no further witnesses at this point. He told a special Scottish court in the Netherlands that an unspecified number of witnesses had not only refused to appear but also to testify by video link.
The witnesses, who were not named, had been expected to give potentially crucial evidence relating to security and check-in procedures at Malta's Luqa airport.
There, prosecutors say, the accused, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, posed as Libyan Arab Airlines employees to plant the bomb that ripped through Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. They deny the charges.
The prosecution said it would call no other witnesses until tomorrow, Friday. Judge Lord Ranald Sutherland adjourned proceedings until then.
The latest adjournment came just a day and a half after the murder trial's resumption following a week-long halt to allow prosecutors to examine last-minute defence witness statements.
Campbell said the prosecution had intended to deal with events and technical issues at the airport, where it says the accused, both Libyan agents, loaded a suitcase containing the bomb onto a flight to Frankfurt. The suitcase was then allegedly transferred onto New-York bound jet Pan Am flight 103.
However, since witnesses crucial to this chapter would not testify in the million-dollar courtroom on the disused U.S. airbase Camp Zeist, the prosecution said it now had to rethink its plan and perhaps move on to deal with events in Frankfurt.
Campbell said the prosecution could still enlist the help of Maltese authorities by asking them to take statements from the witnesses. Legal experts noted, however, that such statements would not be under oath or subject to cross examination.
"...we would wish to avoid such procedures unless they become absolutely essential," Campbell said. Earlier, senior Scottish police officer Henry Bell told the court how Maltese shop owner Anthony Gauci picked out a photograph of al-Megrahi in 1990 and said he closely resembled a man who bought clothes and an umbrella that prosecutors say were packed with the bomb.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Gauci said he could not positively identify the man. And in a blow to the prosecution's case, he said a newspaper photograph of convicted Palestinian bomber Mohammed Abu Talb also bore a likeness to his customer.
Abu Talb, a Lebanese member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), has been incriminated by defence lawyers and one of the first suspects in the Lockerbie case. He is in jail for terrorism in Sweden and has been named as a prosecution witness
The defence, which need only raise "reasonable doubt" in the minds of the three Scottish judges to secure an acquittal, aim to incriminate the PFLP-GC.
Questioned by Campbell, Bell said that twice in the past Gauci had failed to pick out Abu Talb from a photograph.
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