THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Prosecutors are requesting a postponement in the trial of two Libyans accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 following the introduction of new witnesses by the defense, the Scottish Crown Office said Tuesday.
Proceedings are scheduled to begin May 3 following two delays since Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi surrendered Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah last year to stand trial at a former U.S. air base 24 miles southeast of Amsterdam.
"The crown office has requested a delay because the defense has introduced a new witness list," said Crown Office spokesman Howard Hart.
He added that a special pretrial hearing would be held at the special Lockerbie court at Camp Zeist on Thursday, "when the court will decide whether or not to grant it."
The request for a delay of several weeks was in response to the submission of 119 new witnesses and new evidence, said Hart.
Defense lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
The request follows reports of troubles in the prosecution's case following the resignation in January of chief prosecutor Lord Andrew Hardie. Hardie was replaced by Colin Boyd, Scotland's solicitor-general and the former No. 2 man on the prosecution team.
Prosecutors claim the Libyans placed a suitcase bomb on a flight originating in Malta and routed the bomb onto the Pan Am airliner in London via a change of planes in Frankfurt, Germany. The men, employed by the Libyan national airline in Malta, were allegedly undercover intelligence agents.
In January, Scottish legal sources reported that a star witness had backpedaled on his earlier account that he saw one of the men place the suitcase on the conveyor belt in Malta.
The trial follows what is believed to be the biggest criminal investigation in history. Investigators have interviewed more than 15,000 witnesses in 20 countries and collected 180,000 pieces of evidence.
The men are charged with the murders of the 270 passengers and residents of Lockerbie, killed when the Boeing 747 exploded over the Scottish town on Dec. 21, 1988. The explosion killed 259 passengers and crew — including 189 Americans — and 11 people on the ground.