Lockerbie prosecutors close their case

Lockerbie trial prosecutors have closed their case after drawing together hundreds of hours of evidence.

Alastair Campbell QC dismissed defence claims that others had carried out the attack in December 1988 over the Scottish town and said the evidence clearly showed the accused men were responsible for placing an unaccompanied bag containing a bomb on board the plane.

But the two Libyan defendants Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah insist they are not guilty of bombing Flight 103 which exploded killing 270 people.

Mr Campbell said Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah worked together and were "constantly in each other's company" in the days leading up to the bombing.

He told the trial at Camp Zeist in Holland: "The evidence demonstrates that there was a plan to attack an aircraft and that that plan was successfully brought to fruition. The sending of a bomb in an unaccompanied bag was a method of attack against an aircraft of which everyone in the airline industry was only too well aware."

Fhimah, 44, was a former manager for Libyan Arab Airlines at Luqa airport, Malta, and would have known the consequences of placing such a bag on a plane but he used his contacts to help Megrahi, 48, put the bag on board, said Mr Campbell.

The prosecution also argued that the accused travelled from the Libyan capital, Tripoli to Malta - where the bomb began its journey - on the day before the bombing. Mr Campbell said it could be inferred that the men were carrying bomb components.

Mp Campbell said Fhimah's diary, which was seized from his office in Malta, was a crucial piece of evidence which showed that he obtained Air Malta luggage tags - which prosecutors claim were used to direct the bomb bag on to Pan Am Flight 103.

The court adjourned to allow defence lawyers time to study recent changes in the charges before beginning their final speeches.