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Comment: Trial of Lockerbie Suspects before a Scottish Court in the Netherlands1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2009
Extract
On 18 September 1998, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom concluded a treaty envisaging the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the Lockerbie disaster before a Scottish Court sitting in the Netherlands.2 The initiative represents an attempt to break the stalemate resulting from, on the one hand, Libya's refusal to surrender the two suspects for trial in the United Kingdom or the United States and, on the other hand, the refusal by the United Kingdom and the United States to provide the Libyan authorities with the evidence that would have made it possible to try the suspects in Libya.
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- Comment: Trial of Lockerbie Suspects Before a Scottish Court in the Netherlands
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References
2. Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning a Scottish Trial in the Netherlands, 18 September 1998, Trb. 1998 No. 237. The full text follows this comment.
3. Art. 16(1).
4. Arts. 3–14. Cf., Agreement between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Nations concerning the Headquarters of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, New York, 29 July 1994, Trb. 1994 No. 189.
5. Art. 16(3).
6. Art. 16(2).
7. Art. 24.
8. The initiative was outlined in a letter from the Acting Representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States to the UN Secretary-General, UN Doc. S/1998/795.
9. SC Res. 1192 (1998) of 27 August 1998.
10. Wet van 11 november 1998, houdende bepalingen verband houdende met de instelling van een in Nederland zetelend Schots Hof voor de strafrechtelijke vervolging van de personen, aangeduid als ‘the two accused’ in Resolutie 1192 (1998), aangenomen door de Veiligheidsraad van de Verenigde Naties tijdens zijn 3920e vergadering op 27 augustus 1998 terzake van de strafbare feiten, bedoeld in de considerans van het zetelverdrag tussen het Verenigd Koninkrijk van Groot-Brittannië en Noord-Ierland en het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden van 18 September 1998 strekkend tot oprichting van een Schots Hof zetelend in Nederland [Law of 11 November 1998 concerning the establishment of a Scottish Court sitting in the Netherlands in view of the prosecution of persons identified as ‘the accused’ in Resolution 1192 (1998), adopted by the United Nations Security Council during its 3920th meeting on 27 August 1998 concerning criminal offences referred to in the preamble of the agreement between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands of 18 September 1998 concerning the establishment of a Scottish Court in the Netherlands], Stb. 1998 No. 628.
11. The High Court of Justiciary (Proceedings in the Netherlands) (United Nations) Order, Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 2251, 16 September 1998.
12. Sections 5.
13. Agreement between the Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty Regarding the Status of Their Forces, 19 June 1951, 199 UNTS p. 67.
14. See, for example, European Commission of Human Rights, X and Y v. Ireland, 22 DR 51 (1980).
15. Art. 6(1), European Convention on Human Rights. Cf., Principle 5 of the Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, adopted on 6 September 1985 by the Seventh UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders: ‘Everyone shall have the right to be tried by ordinary courts or tribunals using established legal procedures. Tribunals that do not use the duly established procedures of the legal process shall not be created to displace the jurisdiction belonging to the ordinary courts or judicial tribunals.’
16. Lockerbie case (Libya v. United States), Provisional Measures, Order of 14 April 1992, ICJ Reports (1992) p. 126, para. 42.