The Libyan lawyer of the two Libyan suspects wanted in the Lockerbie bombing yesterday said he would accept US and British proposals for a trial in The Hague under Scottish law and that his clients were ready for that.
"It is natural that we accept [a trial in The Hague under Scottish law] if the conditions for a fair trial are provided to protect the two accuseds' rights pending, during and after the trial," Mr Ibrahim Legwell, head of the defence team, said. He insisted that guarantees of a fair trial were required and that UN sanctions imposed on Libya since 1992 over Lockerbie must be suspended as soon as the Libyan government guarantees the two will stand trial in a neutral country.
"If the two states [the US and Britain] accept a trial in a neutral country, it would be natural that the sanctions imposed on Libya will be immediately suspended once Libya, in a protocol to be signed, guarantees the arrival of the two to the trial's venue," Mr Legwell added.
The interview was the first Libyan reaction since the US and British governments said this week they had begun talks on new proposals for a trial in The Hague. Previously, the two governments had always insisted that Libya hand over the suspects for trial in either Scotland or the US.
The UN imposed the sanctions, including a ban on flights to and from Libya and an embargo on some oil equipment, after Libya failed to hand over the two suspects in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, that killed 270 people.
Asked whether the suspects, Mr Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed alMegrahi and Mr Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, were ready to stand trial in a neutral country, Mr Legwell said: "Since 1992, we had been explaining to them that was the best solution possible, and they are naturally convinced of that."
He said that Libya's General People's Congress had affirmed since 1992 that only Libyan courts were entitled to try Libyan citizens but as an exception authorised the two to decide "voluntarily" to stand trial in a neutral country.
"It wouldn't be a hand over, but a voluntary presence under a total conviction of the defence team that the trial would be fair," he said.
Mr Legwell outlined the conditions for a fair trial he said had been set up by Scottish lawyer, Mr Robert Black.
These conditions included the establishment of an international panel of judges to be agreed upon and presided over by a senior Scottish judge. The court would operate under the criminal law and procedures of Scotland.
He said other conditions included the guaranteed safety of the two. Questioning would only be carried out by judges and in the presence of the defence team which would also select the translating team.