I.P.O. Information Service

Lockerbie Trial - Report of International Observer

Santiago de Chile,  4 February 2001/P/HK/17034c-is

In a comprehensive report forwarded yesterday to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Hans Koechler stated that the Lockerbie Trial concluded earlier this week at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands was not fair and did not meet basic requirements of due process.

Dr. Koechler is one of five international observers appointed by the United Nations to observe the trial. In the report consisting of twenty paragraphs specifically evaluating the legal quality of the trial in regard to generally accepted legal standards, Dr. Koechler reached the conclusion that the verdict of the three judges was not comprehensible in view of the conflicting evidence, the series of vague inferences and conjectures on which it is based, and because of the lack of credibility of the key witnesses presented during the trial. The apodictic verdicts of "guilty" in the case of the first accused and "not guilty" in the case of the second accused are contradictory in view of the text of the indictment and in regard to the written Opinion of the Court.

Dr. Koechler explained in his report that the verdict, in his analysis, is more of a political than of a legal nature. He expressed the hope that the search for the truth will continue and a Court of Appeals will correct the inconsistencies of the verdict passed by the three Scottish judges on 31 January 2001.

The full text of the report is available on the web site of the I.P.O. Lockerbie Observer Mission: http://i-p-o.org/lockerbie_observer_mission.htm .

• Hans Köchler's report on the Lockerbie trial

END/Lockerbie Trial -- Report of International Observer/2001-02-04/17034c-is