Lockerbie bombing suspects could be handed over Sunday

April 3, 1999
Web posted at: 9:23 p.m. EST (0223 GMT)

TRIPOLI, Libya (CNN) -- Two suspects in the deadly 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, could be handed over for trial as soon as Sunday, a high-ranking Arab League official tells CNN.

The league's assistant secretary-general, Ahmed Benhelli, said he expects a delegation of diplomats from Egypt and other Arab countries to arrive in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Sunday afternoon to facilitate the handover.

The diplomats are expected to fly from Cairo to the Tunisian city of Djerba, where they will take a car to Tripoli. U.N. sanctions against Libya have restricted any flights to and from Libyan territory.

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah are accused of masterminding the bombing, which killed 270 people, most of them Britons and Americans.

The United States and Britain have long sought to extradite the suspects, but Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi until recently had refused, saying they could not get a fair trial.

Under a deal brokered by South Africa, Saudi Arabia and the United Nations, Libya agreed last month to turn over the suspects by Tuesday. They are to be tried in the Netherlands, using Scottish law, rather than being extradited to Britain or the United States.

Details of the handover have been kept confidential -- so much so that the United Nations isn't expected to announce it has taken place until after the men have left Libya.

Once the suspects are handed over to U.N. authorities, they are expected to go on trial at Camp Zeist, a former U.S. military base on the outskirts of the central Dutch village of Soesterberg. More than 100 Scottish police officers were making preparations at the facility Saturday.

Terms of the deal call for the U.N. Security Council to suspend sanctions imposed in 1992 because of Libya's refusal to turn over the suspects. Those sanctions included the ban on air travel.

Egyptian aviation officials said the head of Libya's Al-Jamhiriya Airlines will arrive in Cairo on Tuesday or Wednesday to discuss details for resuming flights between the countries after sanctions are suspended.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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