The Lockerbie Trial:
Flight Towards Justice

By Martin Debattista

On the 21st of December 1988 the peace of the small Scottish town of Lockerbie was shattered by an explosion that was to leave a deep scar not just on the life of the small community but also on international relations. A bomb had exploded on board Pan Am flight 103 from Heathrow, London, to the USA. Two hundred and sixty-nine people on board and 11 on the ground were killed.

Investigators put the blame on two Libyans, Abdelbasset Ali Mohammed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah. Libya refused to hand the two suspects to the Western world to stand trial. In 1992 the United Nations imposed sanctions upon Libya to put pressure on the country to hand in the suspects. In 1999 Libya acceded to the request on condition that the trial is held in a neutral country, i.e. the Netherlands, and under Scottish law. The sanctions were lifted immediately. The trial began on the 3rd of May 2000 in Camp Zeist, a former military base in the Netherlands. The verdict was delivered on the 31st of January 2001. Abdelbasset Ali Mohammed Al Megrahi was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, while Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah was found not guilty and freed immediately. Al Megrahi's appeal was rejected and he is serving his life sentence in a high-security Scottish prison in Glasgow.

Malta had a direct interest in the case. The Scottish prosecutors insisted the plans of the bombing that took place on the 21st of December 1988 were drawn in different Maltese sites. The say Al Megrahi was the head of security at the Libyan Arab Airlines and director general of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, while Fhimah was station manager at the Libyan Arab Airlines office in Malta.

Prosecutors insist that the explosives used in the bombing were in Malta between the 1st of January 1985 and the 21st of December 1988. The explosives were found in the different places in Malta connected with the suspects.

Prosecutors said that Al Megrahi bought from Mary's house, a boutique in Sliema, clothes in which he wrapped the bomb that was carried in a case by an AirMalta flight to Frankfurt and then transferred on the Pan Am flight. The last persons to have contact with the flight were the air traffic controllers at Heathrow airport on the 21st of December 1988.

AirMalta, Malta's national airline, had always denied the allegation that the bomb was carried by its flight from Malta to Frankfurt. Several Maltese witnesses have been summoned to testify in the case. Tony Gauci, the owner of the boutique Mary's House, was a key witness and had been granted police protection.

Dr. Giannella Caruana Curran and Dr. Manuel Mallia, two of Malta's top lawyers, formed part of the defence counsel of the two Libyan suspects. Dr. Godwin Muscat Azzopardi represented AirMalta.

The sentence issued by the three judges cleared Malta's name.