LOCKERBIE TRIAL IN THE NETHERLANDS – OBSERVER DELEGATION OF THE I.P.O.

New York/Vienna, 17 April 2000/P/K/16793c-is

The International Progress Organization has been invited by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to nominate international observers to attend the trial of the two persons charged with the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 before the Scottish Court sitting in the Netherlands. The invitation was conveyed to the I.P.O. pursuant to Security Council resolution 1192 (1998) of 27 August 1998 by the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Mr. Hans Corell.

The observer delegation of the I.P.O. will be led by Dr. Hans Koechler, Professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and President of the organization. Mr. Robert Thabit, Attorney-at-Law and Permanent Representative of the I.P.O. to the United Nations headquarters in New York, will be member of the team.

The trial of the two Libyan nationals by the Scottish Court sitting in the Netherlands will start on 3 May 2000.

As early as 1992, the International Progress Organization formed an International Committee of Legal Experts on the Lockerbie Dispute. The committee consists of eminent lawyers and jurists from all continents. In its working sessions in Geneva (1992) and New York (1994) the committee presented a comprehensive legal analysis of the Lockerbie problem and worked out concrete proposals for the legal settlement of the issue, among them the proposal for holding a trial in the Netherlands. Under item 8 of its recommendations submitted to the Security Council, the committee stated that "the two accused Libyan nationals have a basic human right under international law to a fair trial before an impartial tribunal and in a neutral location." In connection with its New York session on 1 December 1994, the committee, headed by the President of the I.P.O., held consultations on the issue with the President of the Security Council.

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