
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 22, 1993                   TAG: 9311220051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

LIBYA PAID LAWYER IN FLIGHT 103 CASE

A lawyer representing families of five victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing has been paid by the Libyan government for advice on turning over two suspects, according to a published report.

Lawyer F. Lee Bailey traveled to Libya in August to advise officials on how judicial systems work in various countries in case Libya decided to turn the suspects in, The National Law Journal reported in today's edition.

Bailey told the Journal he saw no conflict in representing the victims' families while advising the Libyans on "what the means of surrender should be. The families would be in favor of that. The purpose of my going there was to facilitate their return to somewhere."

Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah have been indicted in the United States and in Scotland, where the plane exploded, on charges that they planted and detonated the bomb that killed 270 people in 1988.

Bailey said he did not inform his clients of the visit to Libya because it had not been made public. He also stressed that he was not representing the suspects, but merely advising the government on options for their surrender.

Elizabeth Phillips, former president of Victims of Pan Am 103, said she did not think the families "would want to have him represent Libya."

Bailey said he told the Libyans the United States will not "settle for anything less than a Scottish trial," and that even an acquittal there would not stop further prosecutions, he told the Journal. He said the Libyans found his advice "not helpful, not cheerful."

- Associated Press

by CNB