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| British prosecutors ask LibyaÂ’s NTC for Lockerbie help | |
| 2011-09-27 | |
| LONDON: Scottish prosecutors have asked Libya’s interim rulers for help in tracking down information which could lead to others, even deposed leader Muammar Qaddafi, being charged over the 1988 bombing of a US-bound airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland. “In particular we have asked the NTC (National Transitional Council) to make available to the Crown any documentary evidence and witnesses which could assist in the ongoing enquiries,” a spokeswoman for the Scottish Crown Office said on Monday. The NTC said it expected to be able to comment, later on Monday.
His release and return to a hero’s welcome in Libya, coupled with his survival long beyond doctors’ predictions, infuriated many in the United States — home to most of the victims. But the Crown Office noted his trial court had accepted he had not acted alone. “Lockerbie remains an open enquiry concerning the involvement of others with Mr. Megrahi in the murder of 270 people,” the spokeswoman said. Police at the time said they had submitted a list of eight other suspects whom they wanted to interview but that Qaddafi had refused to allow them to be questioned. In March, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, Libya’s former justice minister and now its interim leader, said he had evidence of Qaddafi’s involvement in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Megrahi’s co-accused at the specially convened Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands in 2000 was Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah who was cleared of mass murder. He told Sweden’s Expressen newspaper last month that Qaddafi should be tried in court over widespread suspicions he ordered the bombing. “There is a court and he is the one to explain whether he is innocent or not,” Fhimah said. “He has to.” In Tripoli, asked about the Scottish move, acting NTC justice minister Mohammed Al-Alagi told Reuters he expected to be in a position to comment later on Monday. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 Reagan and Thatcher let is slide. The bomb went off December 21 1988. That was less than a month before Reagan's second term would end. That timing was not a coincidence. Gaddafi was scared of Reagan but he took his chances with GHW Bush, who did let it slide. If Obama wanted to he could apply the Bin Laden precedent when dealing with persons of interest in Libya. Logistics should be far simpler, it would beef up his hawkish credentials at home and the NTC would learn a lesson about which lines not to cross when dealing with the West. |
| Posted by: Spats Shoger4460 2011-09-27 21:04 |
| #4 Oh, you could still send a few Gurkhas in and ask them to bring back the bit on top, in a bag. I'm sure you'd get LOTS of volunteers. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division 2011-09-27 16:30 |
| #3 Good luck with that, morons. The time to do something about Lockerbie was in 1988. What's that old expression...a day late and a dollar short? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-09-27 11:51 |
| #2 Reagan and Thatcher let is slide. Arabee murdering and slaughter has been sliding ever since. These two are held in high esteem today, at least as far as politicians go. Oh the irony of history rewritten. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-09-27 09:42 |
| #1 If Gaddafi didn't order the bombing then we'd have to assume not only that one of his underlings took the initiative to launch a massive attack on the West that might have (and in a sane world would have) had devastating consequences not only for the Gaddafi regime but also for the Libyan nation and people. What we'd also have to assume is that Gaddafi would let this 'initiative' that might have spelled his doom go unpunished. That would be even less plausible. When Gaddafi freed Al-Megrahi he protected an obedient slave. When the Gaddafi clan publicly embraced Al-Megrahi they confessed to the deed. Lockerbie was an act of war, and if not only the Gaddafi regime but also the successor regime obstructs justified Western retribution then they should suffer the consequences. |
| Posted by: Gleremble Ulinetch9793 2011-09-27 06:45 |