Manufacturing Industry

Libyan informant to give evidence at Lockerbie trial next week

Airline Industry Information, Sept 22, 2000

Judges in the trial of the two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing have ruled that a Libyan informant of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will give evidence at the trial next week.

Abdul Majid Giaka, expected to appear in court on Tuesday 26 September, was given the go-ahead to appear in court after judges rejected defence bids to press the CIA to first provide more information about Giaka, whose testimony was already delayed to seek more CIA cables which record Giaka's debriefing by CIA handlers between 1988 and 1991.

Presiding judge Lord Ronald Sutherland said the court was not satisfied that the CIA had any additional evidence that would assist in the trial and ordered that the trial resume on Tuesday. Giaka is apparently believed to have crucial evidence about the alleged bomb plot. At the time of the Lockerbie bombing in December 1988 Giaka was already on the CIA payroll, working for Libyan Arab Airlines at Malta airport alongside Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, the two accused, according to PA News.

Giaka will apparently be flown from the US, where he is living under a federal witness protection programme, and will be accompanied to the Scottish court at Camp Zeist in Holland by 30 US marshalls. It is almost certain that Giaka's court appearance will be behind screens to shield him from public view, and it is believed that he also wants a disguise.

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