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Monday, 5 February, 2001, 20:04 GMT
Gaddafi: Libya is innocent
Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi has condemned the verdict in the Lockerbie
bombing trial as an "injustice", and insisted "Libya was innocent of
Lockerbie".
Colonel Gaddafi made the comments during his first detailed reaction to the verdict, in which a Libyan man, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, was found guilty of the 1988 bombing which left 270 people dead.
Colonel Gaddafi's promises to provide new evidence which would clear Al Megrahi of the bombing did not materialise. He made only one specific, new charge against the British police who investigated the bombing. He said that the investigators had planted clothes in the wreckage of the plane that were later crucial in linking Al Megrahi to the crime. He also delivered a scathing attack on the United States and its policy on Libya. Legal doubts Colonel Gaddafi highlighted questions raised by various legal experts about the verdict, in some cases quoting them. He went to great lengths to try to disparage the Lockerbie ruling, often quoting from the 80-page document.
A BBC correspondent in Tripoli, Frank Gardner, says that while Colonel Gaddafi's speech was long on anti-Western rhetoric it is unlikely to unsettle the British or US Governments. But it does appear to show that Libya is determined to fight the Lockerbie verdict. Remembering 1986 The Libyan leader was speaking in Tripoli in front of a building preserved to show damage caused by the US aerial bombardment of targets in Tripoli and Libya's second city, Benghazi in 1986. He repeatedly pointed at the building behind him, and asked why the victims of the American bombing were not being compensated. Mr Gaddafi said that he considered that Al Megrahi, who is in custody in the Netherlands pending an expected appeal, was being held hostage.
He called on the UN secretary-general and the UN General Assembly to work for the release of this "hostage". The three Scottish judges who heard the case found Al Megrahi's alleged accomplice, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, not guilty. Colonel Gaddafi said last week that the judges had three options - to acquit Al Megrahi, resign or commit suicide. 'Astounded' During his statement, Colonel Gaddafi referred to the opinion of a Scottish legal expert, who said the verdict against Al Megrahi was obtained on "very, very weak" evidence.
Mr Black said he believed the prosecution had "a very, very weak circumstantial case" and he was reluctant to believe that Scottish judges would "convict anyone, even a Libyan" on such evidence. London and Washington are demanding that Libya accept responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and pay compensation to the families of the victims before sanctions can be lifted. On behalf of the relatives of the Lockerbie victims, Washington wants Libya to pay $740m (500m) in compensation, or about $3m (2m) for each victim. Colonel Gaddafi dismissed demands for compensation. He said that "all the victims of the United States, from Vietnam to Tripoli" would have to be paid damages first.
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Full verdicts Lockerbie opinion posted by Scots Court Service
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