TRANSCRIPT
Muhammad al-Zwai - Libyan ambassador to Britain -
and Sue Macgregor
Sue Macgregor
Libya is in a defiant mood this morning after the conviction in the Hague yesterday of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi for what the judges called his horrendous crime. A senior government official in Tripoli, the Under Secretary for International Co-operation, has said that no compensation to the relatives of those who died in the Lockerbie bombing will be paid. It was, he said, a purely criminal case and nothing to do with his Government. Well, the new Libyan ambassador here in Britain is Muhammad al-Zwai, the first ambassador to St James since we broke off diplomatic relations with Libya in 1984, and he's on the line now. Good morning
Muhammad al-Zwai
Good Morning.
Sue Macgregor
It sounds to me, ambassador, that the Libyan government does not accept that Mr Al Megrahi is guilty of a crime, is that so?
Muhammad al-Zwai
In this moment yes because, you know, yesterday the verdict not final because Mr Megrahi still has the right to appeal. So, any speak about this crime will not now. After, I think, the appeal results.
Sue Macgregor
So you are waiting for the appeal result, will you accept the result of that?
Muhammad al-Zwai
Yes, of course. We respect the system, the legal system, in Scottish, and we express this from beginning.
Sue Macgregor
The American State Department, as we've heard in the news, is going to continue its investigation of what happened at Lockerbie and Libyan officials are going to meet them next week. How helpful will they be?
Muhammad al-Zwai
You know, my comment about this, I think I can put it in this point. First of all my country want to explain our deeply sympathy to all the family of victims and we understand their situation and their feeling - this is first. And second we believe, and everyone believe, that yesterday the verdict not final. We should remain waiting until Mr Megrahi's appeal. After this….
Sue Macgregor
You've made that clear but I wondered if I could ask you, ambassador, about the question of compensation because….
Muhammad al-Zwai
Yes, I coming to that…
Sue Macgregor
… a senior government official has said there's no question of compensation. Is that true?
Muhammad al-Zwai
Yes, after the appeal result in that time we can speak about compensation and we will fulfil our duty as we said before to the Security Council. But we think this still not now, after the appeal.
Sue Macgregor
So you are considering the question of compensation?
Muhammad al-Zwai
Yes we understand and we said before that if our people is/are guilty we will pay any compensation in that time but until this moment we believe the legal matter still it is not final.
Sue Macgregor
Well you know that, you say that you are waiting for the result of the appeal, you know that the American government has said that compensation will not be sufficient, Libya for all sanctions to be lifted on Libya, Libya has to renounce terrorism. Will the government do that?
Muhammad al-Zwai
Yes, you know, the United States has from beginning say this and not changed and everyone, especially United States and United Kingdom, knew that Libya long time not deal with terrorism. So United Kingdom when returned relation, diplomatic relation they know that Libya now long time not deal with terrorism.
Sue Macgregor
Ambassador Muhammad al-Zwai thank you very much.
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Please Note:
This transcript was typed from an on-air broadcast and not copied from an original script. Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the 91Èȱ¬ cannot vouch for its accuracy.
