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Scottish police guard the court during the trial

Defense wind up Lockerbie case

CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands (AP) -- Defence lawyers for the two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing have said that prosecutors failed to prove their case.

The charges came during closing arguments in the case of the bombing of Pan Am 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 48, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, 44, face life sentences in a Scottish prison if found guilty of murdering 270 people when the Boeing 747 jumbo jet crashed in December 1988. Both have pleaded not guilty.

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Prosecutors summed up their case against the two on Wednesday after calling 232 witnesses over about eight months.

They say that while working in Malta's Luka airport, the defendants loaded a rigged suitcase onto a plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany. The two then routed the bomb onto a feeder flight connecting with Pan Am 103 in England.

The electronic device exploded 31,000 feet over the small town of Lockerbie shortly after the plane took off from London en route to New York, killing the 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground.

In his opening statement, defence lawyer William Taylor challenged the prosecutors' case.

"It is my submission that the Crown have not proven that an IED (improvised explosive devise) was introduced at Luka airport," Taylor said.

Judges sitting at a special Scottish courtroom in the Netherlands have asked the defence to keep their arguments short, but no time limit was set.

Deliberations are expected to begin next week and court officials say a verdict could come in a week or two.

Prosecutors dropped accusations of conspiracy and breaches of air safety procedures this week, leaving only the charge of murder, the most difficult to prove under Scottish law.

While admitting that their evidence is largely circumstantial, prosecutors said on Wednesday that they were confident their case had been proven.

The court will hand down one of three sentences: innocent, guilty and not proven. Any ruling other than guilty will ensure the men's freedom.

Defence lawyers say the bombing was carried out by Palestinian terrorists believed responsible for a series of attacks across northern Europe in the late 1980s.

But the lawyers failed to recover documentation, allegedly held by the Syrian government, which they believe would have incriminated a Damascus-based terrorist organisation.

Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command were among the first suspects in the bombing after German police raided a hide-out several months before the Lockerbie crash.

The trial began in May after an agreement between the U.S., Britain and Libya allowed for the men to be transferred to the Netherlands.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Prosecutors finish closing arguments in Lockerbie bombing trial
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Reporter's Notebook: Remembering the Lockerbie tragedy
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Scottish Courts
Lockerbie Trial Briefing
Libyan Mission to the U.N.

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