Libya said yesterday it may consider paying compensation to the Lockerbie victims -- but it will never accept responsibility for the bombing.
Amid conflicting signals from the Tripoli government, Washington and London united in insisting that Libya must pay up and accept the blame.
PHOTO: AP
Libyan state-run television said on Wednesday that a Libyan convicted on Wednesday of murdering 270 people in the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing would lodge an appeal.
It said defense lawyers would appeal within 14 days against the court's verdict on Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, 49. Another Libyan, Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, was found not guilty by the special Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands.
Fahima left the Netherlands yesterday morning for Libya, the Dutch Justice Ministry said.
"He's on the way to Libya," spokesman Victor Holtus said. "He left Soesterberg [airbase] at 11:30 this morning."
Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima flew home on a Dutch Air Force Hercules aircraft, under the responsibility of the UN, and arrived at Maatika airport in Tripoli later yesterday and was immediately surrounded by journalists.
Holtus could not say for sure if Fahima's destination was the Libyan capital Tripoli, a journey which he estimated would take around four hours.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam said Libya wished "to turn a new page in its relations with Britain and the US and establish new relations based on respect for its sovereignty and independence."
But "we will not give in to blackmail," he added in a statement faxed to the media.
Libya's ambassador to Britain said that once the appeal process was over, Libya may consider paying compensation.
"After the appeal result, in that time we can speak about compensation and we will fulfil our duty as we said before to the Security Council," Mohammed al-Zwai told BBC Radio. "But we still think not now."
Pressed on whether Libya was considering the question of compensation, he said: "If our people are guilty we will pay any compensation in that time." He stressed that nothing was final until the appeal had run its course.
But there may be another major stumbling block to the lifting of UN sanctions against Libya which was accused for years by the West of actively promoting state terrorism.
Asked by the BBC in Tripoli if Libya would accept responsibility for Lockerbie, the country's foreign minister, Mohammed Abderrahmane Chalgam, replied: "Never."
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said London would be pushing for compensation from Libya "extremely hard."
He said both he and US Secretary of State Colin Powell agreed that before sanctions could be lifted, Libya must fulfill all the requirements of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
"That means that they have to accept responsibility for the appalling mass murder, destruction of Pan Am 103 and they also have to pay further compensation to the relatives," he told BBC radio.
"I was quite interested, the ambassador did not rule out taking these further steps. What he was saying is it will have to wait until the appeal is discharged."
Should the convicted man choose to appeal, he will "of course have a fair hearing, as he's already had a fair trial," Cook said.
"But in the event of the guilty verdict standing, Libya has to accept that it must take those two further steps."
President George W. Bush adopted a similar stance after the conviction. He insisted that Libya must take responsibility for the bombing and pay compensation before the lifting of sanctions will be considered.
In New York, Libya's UN Ambassador Abuzed Omar Dorda told CNN that Libya as a state had had nothing to do with the Lockerbie bombing. He said Libya wanted normal relations with the outside world.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
RSS