Lockerbie Summation Goes To Overtime

Lawyers for two Libyans accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 kept hammering away at the prosecution's case Friday, forcing court officials to schedule another session next week for the defense to wrap up its closing arguments.

Focusing on apparently lax security at Frankfurt airport on the second day of his closing statement, attorney William Taylor suggested that the bomb which killed 270 people on Dec. 21, 1988, may well have been planted by someone other than his client.

Prosecutors allege that the accused -- Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 48, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, 44 -- loaded a rigged suitcase at Luka airport on the Mediterranean island of Malta, tagging it for Germany and eventually the Pan Am flight at London's Heathrow airport.

Taylor, however, quoted testimony from a Frankfurt airport employee, Joachim Koscha, who suggested that inefficient security could have allowed a "rogue bag" to be added in Germany onto a flight that connected with Pan Am 103.

Reading from transcripts of testimony, Taylor quoted officials as saying that anyone wearing an airport uniform might have tagged the luggage and that bags found near check-in were sometimes loaded onto planes.

"It cannot be ruled out that a bag could be added to the baggage cart before the coding," the lawyer read.

On Thursday, Taylor reiterated the defense's contention that Palestinian terrorists based in Germany might have been responsible for the attack.

Defense lawyers had called only three witnesses during the trial, compared to 232 by the prosecution. But some legal experts said the defense strategy of trying to poke holes in the prosecution's entirely circumstantial case during closing arguments could pay off.

"It certainly appears that the baggage process at Frankfurt airport was perhaps not as precise and well documented as might have been anticipated," said Glasgow University criminal law expert Clare Connelly. "If there is another reasonable inference to explain the conduct of individuals or what took place ... then the judges should return the verdict of not guilty."

But she declined to predict what the verdict would be.

Court officials had expected to wrap up closing arguments this week, after the prosecution made its presentation on Wednesday. But instead, another session was set for Tuesday to allow Taylor to continue with his closing. The lawyer for the second accused, Richard Keen, will then present his final statement.

Under Scottish law, the there are three possible verdicts: guilty, innocent and not proven. The last two equal acquittal.

Meanwhile, family members eagerly awaited an end to the longest and most complex trial in Scottish history.

"We have to walk away from this knowing that we have done everything humanly possibly, honorably, and on behalf of those who died and couldn't do it on behalf of themselves," Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was on Fligt 103, said outside the courtroom Friday.

"Many of us lost children ... I imagined her (his daughter) saying: 'You go and find the bastards who did this, Dad."'

The two accused face potential life sentences in a Scottish prison if found guilty of murdering 259 people on board the plane and 11 others on the ground.

By Anthony Deutsch
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