Jim Swire - Facilitating The Trial

Facilitating The Trial

There was no extradition treaty between any of the countries involved: Britain, the U.S. and Libya, and Libyan law prevented the extradition of its citizens in any case. Under the 1971 Montreal Convention which deals with prosecutions relating to aircrashes, Libya offered to detain the two accused and prosecute them. The offer was turned down by the U.S. and Britain and there was an impasse for the next three years in bringing the accused to trial.

Early in 1994, Professor Robert Black of Edinburgh University proposed a solution whereby the two Libyans would be prosecuted under Scots law but in a neutral country. When, later in 1994, newly elected president Nelson Mandela offered South Africa as the neutral venue, the proposal was rejected out of hand by the then British prime minister, John Major.

It took another three years until the election of a Labour government in Britain for any headway to be made. The new foreign secretary, Robin Cook, while initially taking the line that a neutral country was not possible under Scots law, met UKFF103 and with much support from president Nelson Mandela went along with the proposed solution. Swire was said to have been baffled as to how Cook and prime minister, Tony Blair, managed to persuade the Americans to agree.

In the latter part of 1997, Dr Swire and Professor Black decided to lobby internationally for support of Black's proposal and visited Egypt and Libya. Dr Swire went to America, the United Nations, Germany, back to Libya and then visited key cities throughout the United Kingdom. Eventually the Dutch government offered a choice of sites, and Camp Zeist, Netherlands was chosen to become Scottish territory for the duration of criminal proceedings.

The accused were handed over to Scottish police at Camp Zeist in May 1999, and the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial finally began on 5 May 2000. Dr Swire was present for the whole trial and when the verdicts were announced on 31 January 2001, acquitting Fhimah and convicting Megrahi, Swire fainted and had to be carried from the courtroom.