The chief UN legal counsel left for Europe yesterday on his way to Libya to arrange the handover of two suspects accused of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, UN sources said.
Mr Hans Corell, in charge of the surrender of the two men, will be boarding a special aircraft, possibly in Italy, to bring the two suspects from Libya to the Netherlands where they are to stand trial before a Scottish court. The surrender is expected sometime before Tuesday.
Diplomatic sources said that the Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gadafy, wanted to have many witnesses for the handover by inviting the Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, dignitaries from Namibia and a US Congressman, Mr Earl Hilliard, to come to Tripoli.
American and UN officials could not immediately confirm the reports that Col Gadafy wanted several planes to land in Tripoli this weekend, despite a UN flight ban.
The US and Britain say they have evidence that the two suspects planted a bomb that exploded aboard Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21st, 1988 over Lockerbie, killing 270 people most of them Americans.