Suspects Promised Fair Trial

THE HAGUE, Netherlands--Scotland's highest judicial authority promised the World Court yesterday that two men suspected in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 would receive a fair trial there.

Britain and the United States say the two Libyan intelligence agents they indicted in 1992 must stand trial in Scotland or the United States. But Libya refuses to extradite the men, saying a fair hearing would be impossible.

The resulting stalemate has deeply angered the families of the 270 people killed in the attack on the U.S.-bound flight.

But Scotland's lord advocate, Lord Hardie, made a concession to Libya aimed at breaking the deadlock: Try the pair in Scotland but in the presence of international monitors.

"Justice must be seen to be done, and ... in this case we are willing to make special arrangements," Hardie told the court known formally as the International Court of Justice.

Libya did not immediately react to Hardie's offer. Representatives for the North African nation are scheduled to lay out their case Friday. Libya has refused to hand over Abdel Basset Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah despite crippling U.N. economic sanctions imposed in 1992.

Lawyers for the United States go before the court's 16 judges on today. They, along with Britain, contend the court has no jurisdiction in the case and should not be involved.

In 1992, Libya brought the case before the United Nations' highest judicial body, hoping it would quash once and for all U.S. and British attempts to get the suspects extradited.

Libyan leader Mommar Gadhafi has in the past offered to allow the suspects to stand trial in a third, neutral country before a Scottish judge--a move both the United States and Britain have rejected.

Meanwhile, the leader of a group called U.K. Families-Flight 103 said the failure to put the suspects on trial prolongs the suffering of victims' families.

"We are enraged by the fact that it is now nine years ago," said Dr. Jim Swire. "A compromise is required and we accept the compromise of a trial under Scottish law in a neutral country."

Swire's daughter, Flora, was among the 259 passengers and crew members killed in the United Kingdom's worst terrorist attack. Eleven other people died on the ground when the wreckage rained down on Lockerbie.

"This was murder. It's very difficult for me and my children to see that there has been no resolution," said Stephanie Bernstein of Bethesda, Md., a mother of two whose husband--former U.S. Justice Department attorney Michael Bernstein--was killed.

"It's terribly difficult as a family member to see that people are not doing what needs to be done, which is to hand over the suspects in the crime," she said.

The FBI, which has the two suspects on its most-wanted list and has offered a $4 million reward for information leading to their capture, pledged to have them brought to justice.

Libya denies that the suspects were its agents and says they had no role in the bombing. It contends that by investigating the case it has fulfilled its obligations under the 1971 Montreal Convention on unlawful acts against aircraft.

It has asked the court to find the United States and Britain in violation of that same treaty for refusing to cooperate with Libyan authorities.

Gadhafi has said he will give up the men only if the United States turns over the U.S. pilots who carried out a 1986 air raid that Libya says killed 37 people, including Gadhafi's adopted daughter.

Swire sat impassively in the World Court's wood-paneled chamber Monday, hoping for progress toward justice.

"We want to know who murdered those we loved," he said. "My daughter was 23. I would like to be walking the moors of the Isle Of Skye where she and I spent our holidays, not tramping the streets of The Hague."