Victims’ Kin Prepare to Face Lockerbie Suspects

Bert Ammerman has been waiting nearly a decade to face the two Libyans charged with killing his brother and 269 other people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, but as today’s opening of their trial approached he suddenly felt unprepared.

Ammerman steeled himself for the ordeal by joining other American relatives of bombing victims Tuesday on a tour of this former U.S. military base where they will confront the defendants through a wall of bulletproof glass.

“I was a little on edge and flashing back to the first 10 days in [the Scottish village of] Lockerbie until they identified my brother. It was a war zone with camouflage and body bags. And then, over 100 times going to Washington, arguing, testifying, and to the U.K. on political missions and to Germany,” Ammerman said anxiously.

“But then, it gave me a great deal of satisfaction to see the courtroom,” he said. “The time for speculation, the time for conspiracies is over. . . . I will have the opportunity to hear the evidence and make my own judgment.”

The high-tech, high-security courthouse where Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah are to be tried for the December 1988 bombing of the U.S.-bound flight is located in a converted school building--part of an $18-million renovation of the base for the proceedings.

Next door is the prison where the defendants have been awaiting trial for more than a year. Surrounded by cement walls 4 feet thick and topped with barbed wire, the jail is in a Cold War building fortified against nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. It is equipped with Arabic-language television, exercise equipment and a Muslim prayer corner.

The Dutch government deeded the base to Scotland for the duration of the trial, which is expected to last a year. English-language street signs for the “Scottish Court” have been hung on the road to the camp, about 30 miles east of The Hague. About 200 Scottish police officers from eight constabularies are guarding the grounds where reporters for Libyan state television mingle with hundreds of journalists from the United States, Europe and Asia.

Megrahi and Fhimah are charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and endangering the safety of an aircraft in the bombing that killed all 259 on board and 11 people on the ground. Those killed included 189 Americans.

The 1991 indictment by U.S. and British prosecutors accuses Megrahi and Fhimah of being Libyan intelligence agents working for Libyan Arab Airlines. They allegedly packed a radio filled with plastic explosives and a timing device into a suitcase that they then loaded onto a Frankfurt-bound flight in Malta with baggage tags connecting it through to Pan Am 103, bound for New York.

The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Libya in 1992 to try to force Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi to hand over the suspects for trial. He refused, saying that they would never get a fair hearing in the United States or Britain.

The U.S. and Britain finally reached an agreement with Kadafi in 1998 to hold the trial in a Scottish court before judges, rather than a jury, on neutral territory. The men were turned over to U.N. representatives last year and delivered to Camp Zeist, where they pleaded not guilty.

A panel of three judges led by Lord Sutherland will hear the case.

The prosecution plans to call more than 1,000 witnesses in a trial expected to cost $3 million a month, most of it paid by Britain.

Defense lawyer William Taylor, who has submitted a list of more than 100 witnesses, said last week that he will try to prove that other individuals and organizations were responsible for the attack. He did not identify the alleged culprits but apparently was referring to Palestinians acting on behalf of Iran.

The U.S. government paid travel expenses for the 30 to 40 Americans who came for the opening of the trial and is putting them up at a hotel for eight days. Those who are unable to attend the trial can watch it on closed-circuit television in New York, Washington, London and Dumfries, near Lockerbie.

Kathleen Flynn and her husband took early retirement to witness the opening month of the trial in the murder of their son, John. Like many of the relatives, she sees the defendants as pawns in an operation that she believes was masterminded by Kadafi.

She said she wanted to “eyeball those guys” in court and felt no trepidation about seeing them for the first time today.

“If they are guilty, they have no conscience, no morals. They are subhuman. Who would kill 270 people? It’s not really within the realm of the civilized world,” Flynn said.

“I wanted to be here,” she said. “It’s the murder trial of my son. Why wouldn’t I? If he had been shot in the street back home, I would be there. This is no different.”

Feeling more confident after his tour, Ammerman concurred. His younger brother, Tom, was killed in the bombing. Ammerman wanted a trial, and finally he has got one.

“This trial will end my political career,” he says of his lobbying efforts in behalf of justice in the case. “For me, the beginning of the trial brings closure.”