Scottish court officials arrived in Amsterdam on Sunday RELATED VIDEO CNN's Richard Roth talks with residents of the Dutch town of Zeist, where the trial will take place Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

April 5, 1999
Web posted at: 5:20 a.m. EDT (0920 GMT)

In this story: Police, journalists converge on Netherlands town Bomb allegedly planted in suitcase RELATED STORIES, SITES

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libya has handed over two suspects in the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland to representatives of the United Nations.

The suspects are now en route to the Netherlands, where their trial will take place.

Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported that U.N. representative Hans Corell was at the handover ceremony in Lybia.

"In a historical moment awaited by the world, the two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie case were handed over to be flown to the Netherlands for trial before a Scottish court," MENA said.

With the handover, a decade-long manhunt neared its conclusion Monday, as Scottish legal officers prepared to take custody of the two Libyans.

In the Netherlands, preparations continued Monday for the long-awaited trial.

The Dutch Justice Ministry said it would hold a news conference on Monday in connection with the handover of two Libyans. "The news conference will be today," a spokeswoman said, but gave no information on the timing or location of the arrival of the suspects in the Netherlands after a handover to the United Nations at Tripoli airport.

Scottish prosecutors and journalists waited in Amsterdam while the two accused -- Abdel Basset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah -- began their journey to Europe.

A temporary detention unit at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands is ready for the suspects, Scottish officials said. The construction of bomb-proof cells below the base's former medical unit, which will serve as a courtroom, will take several months to complete.

Sheriff Graham Cox, the regional judge who will oversee pre-trial proceedings, was expected to arrive in the Netherlands on Monday. Scottish prosecutors Norman McFadyen and Jim Brisbane are already there.

Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid had said on Sunday that the handover would take place in "the next 24 or 48 hours."

When Tripoli transferred the men to the charge of the United Nations, that step paved the way for the lifting of punitive U.N. sanctions against Libya.

More than 100 Scottish policemen and court officials plus scores of press have descended on the former U.S. airbase Camp Zeist, the venue for the trial, near the Netherlands' sleepy village of Soesterberg.

Some area residents told CNN they were worried about personal safety because of the impending trial, but others were not concerned.

The two accused were to be airlifted to the Netherlands and "extradited" to the unused U.S. military base of Camp Zeist, near the city of Utrecht. The site is to be considered British soil for the trial.

The United States and Britain have accused the two Libyans of planting a bomb aboard Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, killing a total of 270 people, mostly Americans, in the air and on the ground.

Washington and London say they have evidence that the two men planted a bomb inside a suitcase aboard the Pan Am flight, which blew up at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie in southern Scotland as it flew from London to New York.

The bombing sparked a 10-year manhunt that now looks close to ending. Last August, Britain and the United States dropped their insistence on a trial in either of their countries and agreed to a neutral, third country.

Once the men are in the Netherlands, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to write a letter to the Security Council that would suspend sanctions imposed on Libya in 1992 and tightened in 1993. The council can vote to lift them 90 days later.

The trial of the accused will probably drag on for months and will be preceded by extradition proceedings between Britain and the Netherlands. The extradition proceedings themselves could be over in minutes, or they could take months.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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