Libya names Lockerbie bomber defender to panel

Libya has named Saad Jabbar, a lawyer who publicly declared the Lockerbie bomber innocent, as its representative on an arbitration tribunal meant to patch up strained diplomatic relations between Libyan and Swiss governments.

Under a controversial accord reached on August 20 that included an apology from Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, the international tribunal was mandated to investigate last summer’s arrest in Geneva of the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his wife.

Hannibal Gaddafi and his pregnant wife were arrested by Geneva police at the Hotel President Wilson following complaints from a pair of domestic servants who have since dropped the allegations.

The oil-rich North African nation has maintained the arrest violated diplomatic protocol and it subsequently cut trade and diplomatic relations with Switzerland, while detaining two Swiss employees, who have yet to be released after more than a year in the North African country.

Jabbar, an Algerian who is also reportedly a British citizen, was designated by Libya as its representative on the tribunal, according to a statement appearing Wednesday on the Libyan ministry of foreign affairs website.

The Swiss government on Sunday nominated British lawyer Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a former adviser to the UK Foreign Office, as its member on the three-person panel.

Wilmshurst, famous for quitting her Whitehall job over opposition to the Iraq war, will jointly select with Jabbar the third arbitrator for the tribunal, to be based in London.

Jabbar advised the Libyan government on the recent contentious release by Scottish authorities of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.

Megrahi was returned to Libya on humanitarian grounds – he is suffering from cancer – after serving eight years of a life sentence for the bombing of a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland. A total of 270 people died, of whom 189 were US citizens in the 1988 incident.

Megrahi was convicted in 2001 but Jabba told the BBC last month he was innocent. “This man was wrongly convicted and it is right that he should be released,” Jabbar said.

The reception of Megrahi by a large number of people at Tripoli’s airport created a furor in the West because it was perceived he was being given a hero’s welcome.

However, Jabbar predicted an opposite effect before his release, which came after the convicted bomber dropped an appeal against his sentence a month ago.

“Rest assured that the Scottish government has done the UK a great favour,” the lawyer is quoted as saying. Respect for Britain “in the eyes of the Arab world will grow.”

Once the arbitration tribunal is established it will have 60 days to deliver judgment on the Gaddafis’ arrest. But the tribunal is hotly opposed by the Geneva cantonal government, which maintains it contravenes Swiss law and has come out strongly in support of its police department.

Meanwhile, in Bern, Merz came under pressure because he has failed to secure the release of the two Swiss employees, regarded by the media in Switzerland as “hostages.” Under the agreement with Libya Merz said the two businessmen would be returned by September 1, a promise that has not been kept.

The Libyan government has sought the payment of 860,000 francs for each of the two hostages, according to a report from Radio-Suisse Romande. The amount is meant to reflect the 500,000-franc bond paid by Hannibal Gaddafi to secure his release from Geneva authorities.

Geneva politicians and media have poured scorn on Merz’s actions, seen as a humiliating climbdown that put in question the canton’s rule of law. But in a press conference in Bern on Wednesday, Merz was defended by Micheline Calmy-Rey, Switzerland’s foreign affairs minister, who also happens to be a Socialist party member from Geneva.

Appearing at Merz’s side, she said she fully backed the president’s goal of re-establishing “normal relations” with Libya. Switzerland is living up to its side in the bargain and now it awaits Libya to do the same, the pair said without accepting questions from journalists.