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Relatives focus anger on LibyaLONDON, England -- Relatives of Lockerbie bomb victims say the verdict points to state-sponsored terrorism by Libya. Daniel Cohen, the father of a 20-year-old college student killed in the bombing, said: "The important thing is not just these two guys, but the connection with Libya." Three Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands found one of two accused Libyan men guilty and one not guilty of being behind the 1988 bombing in which 270 died. As the verdicts were read in the Camp Zeist courtroom a leader of the British Lockerbie victims' families, Jim Swire, collapsed and had to be led from the Camp Zeist courtroom.
Swire, whose lost his daughter Flora, was not seriously ill but emotion had taken its toll, said his wife Jane. She said they had accepted the verdict and she hoped the families could draw a line under the tragic event. The prosecution said Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, a Libyan agent, had brought the bomb to Malta, where it was aboard as slipped luggage. Watching events on television at home in New Jersey, Cohen said: "Even this verdict points the finger in the right place. I am tremendously relieved. It's what I wanted. "Both would have been better, but the important thing is that the Libyan government has been indicted in this thing." His wife, Susan, who watched the closed-circuit broadcast of the verdict's readings in Washington D.C., called the outcome, "an enormous relief." "There's no way that Libya can now say they weren't involved," she said. "That bloody murderer, (Libyan leader Moammar) Gadhafi, has destroyed my life." Aphrodite Tsairis, who lost Alexia Tsairis, a 20-year-old student, in the Lockerbie bombing, said outside the court: "It is now up to the United States Government to follow up its policy on state-sponsored terrorism. "They have said that they will not tolerate state-sponsored terrorism. Now we have in a just and equitable court a judgment against a man who worked for Libya and there can be no clearer statement than that." Also welcoming the verdict American Bert Ammerman, the brother of one of the victims, said the families "got some justice today." He praised the Scottish justice system as "excellent" but said he held Gadhafi personally responsible. Ammerman called for world leaders to take a stand against "state sponsored terrorism." Bob Monetti, the father of another victim, demanded a civil case against Gadhafi. The British families are pushing for an independent inquiry into the failings of intelligence services and aviation authorities. The bomb on Pan Am flight 103 killed all 259 passengers and 11 people in Lockerbie village below. Victims came from 21 countries, but the majority --- 189 -- from America. Among them were 35 students from Syracuse University in New York returning from an overseas study course in London. The dead also included two playwrights, a professional golfer, four CIA officers, a diplomat, a Nazi-hunter and a United Nations worker. The youngest victims were two two-month-old babies, while the eldest was 79-year-old retired doctor Ibolya Drucker from Hungary. Over 200 relatives of Lockerbie victims have taken advantage of being able to watch the trial on closed-circuit television at four special centres in Britain and the United States. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Reno, Scottish prosecutors meet families of Pan Am victims RELATED SITES: University of Glasgow: Lockerbie Trial Briefing |
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