Minister: Libya willing to pay Lockerbie compensation

Libya is willing in principle to pay compensation to relatives of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing but is still considering the amount, a minister in Colonel Gaddafi’s government said today.

The North African state is now considering a formula by which it complies with the last UN resolution concerning Lockerbie: accepting responsibility for the bombing, said African affairs minister Ali al-Treiki.

Speaking to the pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper in New York, al-Treiki said that “as a matter of principle” Libya accepted the idea of compensating victims’ families because it was a demand of the UN Security Council.

But Tripoli wants to study international precedents before determining a dollar value, he told the London-based newspaper. “The principle is something and numbers are something else.”

In March, a Scottish appeals court upheld the murder conviction of former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground.

Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 20 years. A second Libyan was acquitted in the original trial.

According to UN resolutions imposed in 1992, Libya must hand over the suspects, acknowledge responsibility for the attack, denounce terrorism and disclose all it knows of the 1988 explosion. The resolutions - which were suspended but not lifted after the hand over in 1999 - also call on Libya to pay fair compensation.

In May, lawyers announced that a group of Libyans had negotiated a deal that would give £6.5 million each to the families of victims. But Libya insisted the group did not have authorisation from the government to negotiate.

Al-Treiki said the lawyers “leaked” news of the compensation settlement as a manoeuvre and “may be blackmailing.”

James Kreindler, a lawyer from New-York handling the settlement case, said al-Treiki’s comments don’t “make any sense at all.”

Kreindler said he has been negotiating with the Libyan delegation for about a year and is on the verge of “finalising a written document.”

Al-Treiki said Libya has been complying with the UN resolutions but wants to avoid criminal or civil liability.

“We do not admit responsibility as a state. The Libyan state is not responsible for this, “ he said.

Libya also still upholds the innocence of al-Megrahi and does not want to jeopardise his chances of appeal by accepting responsibility for the bombing, he said.

Al-Treiki said negotiations - not bound by a timetable - are still on going with American and British officials to find a solution. “We see the American position as very flexible and very responsive. They are hoping to see the issue closed. We are working with them to see to it.”

Separately, a Libyan official accused Britain of continuing to give refuge to terrorists wanted in Libya. Members of what he called Libyan al-Qaida work freely in Britain, the official told the official Libyan news agency as saying.

Al-Turiki said in his interview that Libya asked Britain in 1980s to extradite a number of wanted Libyan terrorists, something Britain declined to do on the basis that they were members of Libyan opposition.