Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: The trial of Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah for the bombing of Pan Am Flight PA 103 began in the High Court of Justiciary at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands, in May 2000.The two men were accused of murdering the 259 passengers on board the aircraft and the 11 people on the ground that were killed when the plane blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, at 7:03 pm on December 21, 1988 while en route from London to New York.The trial resulted from a compromise worked out between the United Nations, Libya, the United States and the United Kingdom.The United States and United Kingdom initially demanded that Libya hand over the two suspects for trial.Libya argued that it had no legal obligation to surrender the suspects, and the United Kingdom and United States argued that nothing short of a trial in either Scotland or the United States was acceptable.This stalemate was broken only by a compromise brokered by the United Nations whereby the Libyans would be tried in a neutral venue, the Netherlands, before a panel of Scottish judges (with no jury) under Scots criminal law and procedure.Under Scottish law 1 special legislation was necessary in order to permit a Scottish court to sit outside Scottish territory.Paragraph 3(1) of the High Court of Justiciary Order 2 provided that, for the purpose of conducting criminal proceedings against al Megrahi and Fhimah on charges of conspiracy to murder, murder and contravention of the Aviation Security * Presented at the War Crimes Research Symposium: "Terrorism on Trial" at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, sponsored by the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center, on Friday, October 8, 2004.t The author was one of a number of international lawyers who provided legal assistance to Mr. Al Megrahi during his appeal.1 Under the constitutional structure of the U.K., Scotland is part of the U.K. but has a distinct legal system from that of England
Author: Julian B. Knowles
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2901042467