Lockerbie Defense: Blame Others

The first week of testimony in the trial of two Libyans accused of bombing the December 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, ended with the names of the 270 victims being read aloud.

Some 40 relatives of victims listened in silence, from behind a bulletproof partition.
Relatives said this, the third day of testimony, was the first time they had emerged from their own pain to consider the tragedy of others.

Under Scottish law, the defense need only sow a seed of sufficient doubt about the prosecution's case, in order to avoid the conviction of Libyan defendants Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima.

"When I saw my father in court for the first time, I felt very upset," says Ghada al-Megrahi, a teenage daughter of one of the defendants. "I'm certain he will be acquitted with the will of God."

Al-Megrahi and Fhima have entered not guilty pleas and if convicted, they could each be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The defendants wore white prayer robes and caps to court Friday in observance of the Muslim Sabbath. Scottish officials have arranged for them to pray during breaks in the proceedings.

Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper rported Thursday that a British public relations firm working for the Libyan government is looking for Israeli intelligence officers to testify for the defense, and place the blame on Palestinian terror groups.

The defense has stated its intention to throw suspicion for the bombing on two Palestinian groups with no connection to the suspects now on trial.

With that aim in mind, the defense Friday questioned Scottish detective Gordon Ferrie, a chief inspector of police who was involved in the Lockerbie investigation.

Ferrie confirmed in court that a Syrian-backed Palestinian terrorist group was initially suspected in the bombing, but was later dropped as a suspect, for lack of evidence.

A spokesman for that group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, is denying any involvement.

Other defense testimony focused on involvement by U.S. and other foreign intelligence agencies, apparently seeking to suggest that key Lockerbie evidence could have been spirited away or even planted at the crash scene.

Stephen Comerford, a retired police officer who was involved in the probe, was asked Friday if he knew of a "joint intelligence group" of British and foreign intelligence agents who helped recover some material from the crash scene.

Questioned by defense attorney Richard Keen, Comerford agreed there was "concern about sensitive material and its recovery" from the wreckage of the aircraft, which had a number of U.S. intelligence agents among its passengers.

Lockerbie residents Thursday took the witness stand to recount the hellish scene that still haunts them: gardens littered with corpses, burning houses and cars and the thunderous roar of the jetliner as it plunged from 31,000 feet onto their neighborhoods.

"It looked like an atomic bomb," said 37-year-old Ian Wood. "Like mushrooms flaring up, you could feel the heat all around you."

Wood told te court he still suffers anxiety attacks and other health problems stemming from the disaster which flattened two houses across the street from his own.