Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Trial - Statistics

Statistics

Some general statistics:

• there were 84 court days (between 3 May 2000 and 31 January 2001)
• 230 witnesses gave evidence
• the Crown listed 1160 witnesses and called 227
• the defence listed 121 and called 3
• witnesses came from the UK, USA, Libya, Japan, Germany, Malta, Switzerland, Slovenia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, India, France and Singapore
• languages translated in court were Arabic, French, Czech, Japanese, Swedish, Maltese and German
• there were 1867 documentary reproductions and 621 label productions (or exhibits – the largest of which was an aircraft reconstruction)
• the aircraft reconstruction was the only one not conveyed to court (it remained at the Air Accident Investigations Branch premises at Farnborough in England)
• there were 10,232 pages of court transcripts covering more than three million words
• the cost of the trial itself was estimated at £60m
• the running costs of the appeal were put at about £2m per month, which combined to produce a total bill of £75m, as estimated by the Scottish Executive
• 20% of the running costs were met by Scotland's Justice Department
• 80% of the running costs along with capital expenditure were borne by the UK government
• the US government made a substantial contribution towards the extra costs of holding the trial in the Netherlands
• the creation of the special court and prison complex at Camp Zeist cost £12m
• original estimates for the entire proceedings were put at £150m (or double the actual spend)
• compensation of £4.5 million ($8 million) was paid in August 2003 by Libya to each family of the 270 victims: a total of £1.23 billion ($2.16 billion)
• contingency fees of £1.4 million ($2.5 million) were deducted from each family's compensation payment, and were retained by the US law firms involved: a total of £385 million ($675 million) in legal fees