INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE TO ANNOUNCE DECISION OVER ITS JURISDICTION ON LOCKERBIE INCIDENT ON FRIDAY, 27 FEBRUARY
Press Release
ICJ/550
INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE TO ANNOUNCE DECISION OVER ITS JURISDICTION ON LOCKERBIE INCIDENT ON FRIDAY, 27 FEBRUARY
19980223 THE HAGUE, 23 February (ICJ) -- The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will announce on Friday, 27 February, whether it has jurisdiction to deal with the merits of the two cases brought by Libya against the United Kingdom and the United States concerning the aerial incident at Lockerbie. It will also announce whether the Libyan claims are admissible.A public sitting will take place at 10 a.m. in the Peace Palace in The Hague during which the Vice-President of the Court, Judge Christopher G. Weeramantry, will read the judgments in both cases. Judge Weeramantry exercises the functions of the presidency in the two cases, the President being a national of one of the parties in one case and having declined to exercise the presidency in the other.
The United Kingdom and the United States maintain that the Court lacks jurisdiction in the matter and that the Libyan claims are not admissible, particularly in view of resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council.
Libya contends that the United Kingdom and the United States do not have the right to compel it to surrender two Libyan nationals accused of having caused the destruction of Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988, in which 270 people died (all 259 passengers and crew, as well as 11 people on the ground).
The United Kingdom and the United States contend that the accused should be surrendered by Libya for trial either in Scotland or the United States, but Libya argues that the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation signed at Montreal in 1971 authorizes it to try them itself.
The parties have presented their arguments on the preliminary objections raised by the United Kingdom and the United States in writing and during public hearings, which were held between 13 and 22 October 1997.
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NOTE:The summary and the full texts of the judgments will be available on the website of the Court (http://www.icj-cij.org).