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Freed Libyan Says Outside Pressure Put On Scottish Judges
ABU DHABI, Feb 2 (News Agencies) - Libyan Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah said Friday that outside pressure was exerted on the Scottish court that acquitted him but sentenced his co-defendant to life in prison for the Lockerbie bombing.
"What happened during the trial was not normal," Fhimah told Abu Dhabi satellite television in his first statement since his release, charging that "pressures were exerted ... inside the court" against him and fellow Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi.
Fhimah did not specify who was applying the pressure, but condemned the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
"What was presented to the court did not include any proof [of Megrahi's guilt]. There were simply suspicions and lies on the part of the CIA," which gathered evidence for prosecutors, Fhimah said.
Fhimah also said he would ask for compensation for "the moral and material damages" he suffered at the trial.
Fhimah returned to Libya on Thursday to a hero's welcome after spending 22 months in prison at Camp Zeist, a former U.S. military base in the Netherlands, where he and Megrahi awaited trial before a panel of Scottish judges.
They were charged with murder, accused of planting a bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, southwest Scotland.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi alleged Thursday that "there was pressure by the United States and Great Britain on the judicial organs that rendered the verdict."
Kadhafi said the Scottish judges at the trial had three options: "to tell the truth, to resign or to commit suicide."
Fhimah also told Abu Dhabi television he would create an organization called the "World Victims of the CIA," whose mission would be "to study all cases incriminating American intelligence services."
He said he would personally finance the group, calling on "all the world's free men, human rights groups and charitable associations to support the project."
"The coming days will prove Megrahi's innocence," Fhimah added.
The acquitted Libyan thanked a number of world leaders for their positions, including Kadhafi, Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former South African president Nelson Mandela, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdel Meguid.
Mandela and Prince Bandar were central mediators in March 1999 to help reach an agreement bring the Libyans to trial.
On Thursday, Mandela criticized the United States and Britain for vowing to keep sanctions until Libya compensates victims' families, saying the countries were "moving the goalposts."
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