Deadlock over Lockerbie trial

The British, German and American governments have deliberately created deadlock over the Lockerbie trial because evidence against the two accused Libyans "would not last five minutes in court", said Jim Swire, father of a Lockerbie victim.

In a moving speech at the Lockerbie seminar, Swire asked the lawyers present "to rise up and demand that the course of justice in this case be wrenched out of the hands of politicians. They take no oath to find truth or justice. They have refused a proper inquiry in the UK and denied, against all the evidence, that they received warnings before this

attack which could well have been used to prevent it."

He said that after five years without progress towards a trial in the US or UK, it was time to compromise. The Libyans had said they would accept a trial in the Hague held under Scottish law but the UK government refused to shift from its position.

Swire said: "I have accused the governments of America, Britain and Germany of complicity in allowing the disaster to happen and of perverting the course of justice since. I now add the charge that they have deliberately created a deadlock because they do not want their 'evidence' exposed in a fair criminal court."

Swire, spokesman for the pressure group UK Families - Flight 103, later said: "What we know of the evidence appears to link Iran and Syria with the bombing. But in the run-up to the Gulf War when the US and Britain needed to keep these countries neutral, they suddenly changed to blaming Libya.

"Britain and America do not want a trial. Many believe their evidence wouldn't stand up five minutes in a proper court."

Tam Dalyell MP said he became concerned about Lockerbie when he found out from local police that Americans in helicopters had been on the scene one hour and 25 minutes after the crash, searching the wreckage. To applause from the Lockerbie relatives he said: "The last thing the governments of Britain and America want is for this to come to trial because the truth would be excruciatingly embarrassing."