270 Victims’ Names Read at Lockerbie Trial

The prosecution in the Lockerbie trial had the last word Friday when the names of all 270 victims of the 1988 airliner bombing were entered into the record in a solemn reading.

It lasted a full hour and left nothing for presiding judge Lord Sutherland to do in the heavy silence that followed except declare an adjournment for the weekend.

But defense lawyers for the two Libyans accused of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 succeeded earlier in launching their line of attack, short-circuiting lengthy testimony about the devastation and concentrating on the bomb itself.

“I think both sides will be fairly satisfied with the past three days,” said Andrew Fulton, visiting professor at Glasgow University, who is following the trial. “The prosecution completed its first chapter showing the extent of the tragedy, and the other side launched its Palestinian defense.”

American Bert Ammerman, who lost his brother Thomas, said Friday was “the most powerful day” of the trial so far.

The court, housed in a former U.S. military base that has been declared Scottish territory for the duration of the trial, was adjourned until Monday.

After two days of testimony that observers said was wasting time with heart-rending but undisputed facts, the trial got down to business Friday with defense challenges under cross-examination.

Lawyers for the two Libyans--Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah--switched the line of evidence to the kind of bomb detonator that may have been used in the attack and measures taken to prevent any interference with the evidence.

The Libyans deny placing a bomb in a suitcase in Malta that later was transferred to the Pan Am flight at Frankfurt, Germany, headed for London and New York. The defense is expected to argue that the device was, in fact, placed at Frankfurt by Palestinian extremists.