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One Libyan Guilty, One Acquitted In Lockerbie Trial, Sanctions To Remain
WASHINGTON & CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands, Jan 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Scottish court here Wednesday convicted one Libyan of murder and found the second innocent in the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing, ending a marathon 84-day trial and possibly Libya's international isolation.
"You are discharged and free to go," chief judge Lord Ranald Sutherland told Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, 44, who nodded and was led from the courtroom by a pair of Scottish policemen, followed by his lawyer, Richard Keen.
Sutherland found Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 48, guilty, and sentenced him to life in prison.
Megrahi showed no emotion on hearing his verdict. He looked briefly around at the gallery. His face was blank. A Libyan television reporter said al-Megrahi would appeal within two weeks.
Jim Swire, 64, representative of the families of the British victims, meanwhile fainted after the not guilty verdict and was carried out of the courtroom and rushed to a hospital by ambulance. He was later reported to be well.
The tense courtroom was packed with relatives of the 270 people who died, most of them Americans, when the airliner blew up over Scotland on December 21, 1988.
The two Libyans had been accused of planting a suitcase containing a bomb on a flight out of Malta tagged for transfer via Frankfurt on to Pan Am Flight 103 at London's Heathrow Airport.
The bomb exploded as the New York-bound Boeing 747 flew over the town of Lockerbie, southwest Scotland, killing all 259 aboard plus 11 on the ground.
The verdicts ended 84 days of courtroom drama and could spell the beginning of the end of Libya's diplomatic headaches.
U.S. President George W. Bush, however, said Wednesday that the United States would keep pressure on Libya "to accept responsibility" for the bombing and compensate families of the victims.
"I want to assure the families and victims, the United States government will continue to pressure Libya to accept responsibility for this act and to compensate the families," the president told reporters.
"Nothing can change the suffering and loss of this terrible act. But I hope the families do find some solace that a guilty verdict was rendered," Bush said.
"I also appreciate so very much that the Scottish court has made the decision and convicted a member of the Libyan Intelligence Service for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103," he said.
"I appreciate the work of the United States government team, which contributed to this guilty verdict," he added.
Earlier, the White House in a statement welcomed the verdict as a "victory" for international justice, but said U.N. sanctions on Libya should remain in place until Tripoli has compensated victims' families and accepted responsibility.
The United States and Britain "have made clear to the government of Libya that the delivery of a verdict against the suspects ... does not in itself signify an end to U.N. sanctions against Libya," the statement added.
U.N. Security Council Resolutions "call on Libya to satisfy certain requirements, including compensation to the victims' families and the acceptance of responsibility for this act of terrorism, before U.N. sanctions will be removed."
Libya "has not yet satisfied these requirements," according to the White House.
In New York, relatives of the U.S. victims of the bombing heard the court delivering its verdict in a live broadcast from the Netherlands, made possible with help from the State Department.
Acting Deputy Attorney-General Bob Mueller stressed that the case was "not closed."
"The investigation continues to determine who else may have been involved in this act of terrorism, and to bring that individual or those individuals to justice," Mueller told reporters.
Libya said Wednesday it respected the verdict but made no move to accept responsibility for the bombing.
The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Libya in 1992 and 1993, including an air and arms embargo, and a freeze on its assets abroad as a means of pressuring Tripoli to turn over the suspects for trial.
Those sanctions were suspended, but not lifted, on August 27, 1998, after Megrahi and Fhimah arrived at this former U.S. military base - declared Scottish territory for the purpose - to stand trial.
In Tripoli, after the verdict, the foreign ministry demanded an immediate end to the international sanctions and compensation for the economic losses from the embargos that plunged the country into isolation.
A Downing Street spokesman in London said Britain expected Libya to pay $700 million in compensation to the relatives of the victims before the sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council can be lifted.
Lawyers representing the families of those killed in the bombing state they also plan to file a civil case against the state of Libya, which received no responsibility in any part of the plot Megrahi was convicted of.
At U.N. headquarters in New York, a British diplomat said: "The sanctions aren't going to be reimposed, because that would certainly be vetoed by one of the other permanent members of the Security Council."
But formal lifting of sanctions also requires the council's assent, and the United States used its threat of veto to quash an attempt by non-aligned council members to lift them last month.
"Libya respects the decision of Scottish justice and the verdict handed down," the spokesman said, adding that Libya had cooperated with the court.
"Now that the verdict has been pronounced, Libya demands the immediate lifting of the sanctions," and reparation for the losses they caused, Shawsh added.
"We hope that Libya and the United States will be able to turn the page on the past together," Shawsh said, adding that he was convinced that there would be no "political repercussions" from the verdict and relations between Tripoli and Washington would progress.
"We hope that the United States will change its attitude," he added.
The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1981.
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