Zeist - Only gulping sobs and rustling tissues broke the hour-long silence as the names of the 270 Lockerbie bombing victims were read out yesterday.
Relatives bereaved when a Pan Am jumbo jet exploded and crashed over the Scottish town in 1988 sat still as the prosecutor, Mr Alistair Campbell, spent a full hour intoning the grim roll-call on the third day of the Scottish trial held on Dutch territory.
"These are the 270 most important witnesses in absentia," Mr Bert Ammerman of New Jersey, who lost his brother Thomas, said.
Ms Kathleen Flynn, whose 21-year-old son John perished, held up his photo on hearing his name so that the Libyan defendants, Mr Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Mr Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima could see from their courtroom seats on the other side of bullet-proof glass.
The Libyans, alleged to have acted for the Libyan secret service, have pleaded not guilty to planting a bomb on the aircraft. Their defence plans to blame Palestinian extremists.