2 Suspects in Pan Am Bombing Challenge Conspiracy Charges

Lawyers for two Libyans charged with planting the bomb that downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, asked a Scottish court Tuesday to reduce the charges against the men.

The hearing marked the suspects’ first public appearance since they were handed over in a deal Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi agreed to in April. The deal called for the suspects to be tried under Scottish law but at this neutral venue, a former U.S. air base about 30 miles southeast of Amsterdam.

In the pretrial session, held under intense security, defense attorneys pressed the Scottish high court to drop charges of conspiracy to murder against suspects Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, who are being held here in connection with the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing that killed 270 people.

The men, both allegedly former Libyan intelligence agents, are charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and other violations in the deaths of 259 people aboard the airliner and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie.

Defense attorneys filed a protest last week challenging the Scottish court’s competency to consider the conspiracy to murder charge, asserting that the activities that allegedly constituted preparations for the bombing did not take place on Scottish soil.

The conspiracy charge “mentions a considerable number of locations, none of which are in Scotland,” defense lawyer Bill Taylor said in opening remarks Tuesday.

The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 2.