Libya wins court ruling
The International Court of Justice at the Hague ruled 13 to two on February 27 that it had the authority to decide whether Libya must surrender two of its citizens for trial on charges of blowing up a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988.
The ruling rejects arguments by Britain and the United States, backed by United Nations Security Council resolutions, that the accused Libyans be tried in either Scotland or the US.
The Libyan government's insistence that they be tried in a "neutral" country (a right under the Montreal Convention), and its refusal to hand over the accused to the US or Britain, were used as the pretext for imposing international trade and air sanctions on Libya in April 1992.
This ruling by the highest court of the UN, said Abuzed Omar Dorda, Libya's ambassador to the United Nations, reveals the injustice of the sanctions, which have cost Libya around US$25 billion. Libya will soon make a formal request to the Security Council to have the sanctions lifted, he said.
Libya has always denied involvement by any of its citizens in the bombing, and says it has never seen any evidence to contradict their claim of innocence.
While the ICJ has ruled that it has jurisdiction to decide the merits of Libya's case for a trial in a neutral country, it has not set a date for a further hearing.