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Lockerbie judges reject acquittal plea

CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands -- Judges at the Lockerbie trial have rejected a plea to acquit one of the two Libyans accused of planting a bomb on the Pan Am plane.

The judges ruled: "We are unable to be satisfied there is no case to answer and must therefore refuse Mr Keen's motion."

The ruling follows a defence motion brought on Tuesday that Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah had no case to answer.

Fhimah's lawyers argued that no evidence ties him to the bombing 12 years ago of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Defence lawyer Richard Keen said the prosecution had failed to present evidence linking his client to any of the events leading up to the explosion, which killed 270 people.

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He went through the indictment with a fine-toothed comb, saying the prosecution case against his client was purely circumstantial.

But the prosecution, which concluded its case last week after five months of hearings, argued that it has a convincing body of circumstantial evidence against Fhimah and co-defendant Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi.

Prosecutors maintained that Fhimah was a "perfect accomplice" to fellow defendant Abdel Basset al-Megrahi. The two are accused of planting a bomb aboard the plane which exploded over Lockerbie.

Both deny the three charges of conspiracy to murder, murder and contravention of the Aviation Security Act.

Keen said the judges had to consider one crucial question. "Was the second accused aware that there was an intention to use an explosive device for the destruction of a civil aircraft and the murder of its occupants?" he said.

"If (Fhimah) was not aware of that objective then he cannot be guilty of conspiracy, he cannot be guilty of murder and he cannot be guilty of the alleged breach of section two of the Aviation Security Act 1982." Keen listed all the areas of the indictment referring to Fhimah and argued there was no evidence whatsoever to show his client ordered timers for use in the bomb, tested explosives in Libya or flew to Malta with a suitcase containing a bomb.

"There is not one single piece of evidence to bear out that libel as far as the second accused is concerned in any respect whatsoever. One wonders how he came to be mentioned in that paragraph," Keen said repeatedly as he listed the charges.

Keen said Fhimah had not known of any plot to blow up the airliner. If the court believed he played a part in putting the bomb on board the plane, he did so unwittingly, Keen said.

The prosecution says the two defendants, who it alleges were Libyan intelligence agents, placed a bomb-laden suitcase on board a flight departing from Malta, tagged for transfer at Frankfurt airport for the Pan American flight.

Keen said the prosecution had not even proven that Fhimah was at Luqa airport when the suitcase was dispatched.

Responding to the motion, prosecutor Alastair Campbell said Fhimah worked as station manager for Libyan Arab Airlines at Luqa, and kept his security pass even though he stopped working there shortly before the bombing on December 21, 1988. It said the airline job was a cover for his intelligence activities.

Campbell said there was evidence that Fhimah had stored explosives in his desk at the airport for al-Megrahi.

Entries in Fhimah's diary indicating he had taken luggage tags from Air Malta was not proof, Keen said.

The prosecution says the bomb began its journey in Malta's Luqa airport and that the two accused used false luggage tags to load it on a plane bound for Frankfurt.

They also allege the two posed as employees of Libyan Arab Airlines and were in fact members of the Libyan intelligence services, assertions also not backed up by evidence, Keen said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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