Syria refuses to cooperate as Lockerbie trial nears end

LONDON — The trial of two Libyans charged with bombing a U.S. airliner in 1988 nears the end as Syria has refused to cooperate with a request for new evidence.

The final presentation by the defense and prosecution starts on Tuesday at a military base in Netherlands. A Scottish court is presiding over the trial.

Authorities said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad refused to respond to a request for a key piece of evidence in the trial of the Libyan agents charged with bombing the Pan Am flight. The trial had been postponed for a month to give the defense time to obtain a document from Syria.

But the judges were told that Syria refused a British request for the document. Syria refused to acknowledge the existence of the sought docment.

"The Syrian authorities consider they should not have been asked the question in the first place and would prefer not to have to send a formal response," Colin Boyd told the judges. "Nothing the Crown has heard gives us reason to expect that this court will ever have sight of this document, if it exists."

The defense argued that the document links the bombing to the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. The Popular Front was originally suspected of the bombing and an explosive device similar to the one that detonated the Pan Am explosion was found by German police in a raid months before the bombing.

A verdict could be issued within the next week.