SOESTERBERG, The Netherlands – Susan Cohen said she was filled with “anxiety and dread” as she and other relatives of victims arrived here yesterday for the opening of the Pan Am 103-Lockerbie trial.
The Cape May, N.J., resident was emotionally wrung out after taking her first trans-Atlantic flight since her 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, was killed with 269 other people in the terrorist bombing of the jumbo jet 11 years ago over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The flight was a “terrible experience for me,” she said.
But as she nervously picked at her lunch at a hotel near Camp van Ziest, where the trial begins today, Cohen was steeling herself to face her daughter’s accused killers: Libyan spies Abdel Basset Ali Mohammed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah.
“I dread this,” Cohen said. “I don’t know how I’m going to react when I go to court and see the two terrorists.”
The worst terrorist attack against American aviation in history has left a trail of unimaginable sorrow.
In its aftermath, one Manhattan woman, overwhelmed at the loss of her daughter, stood for weeks in Central Park after reading about the infamous assault on a female jogger, hoping the same fate would befall her.
Another man, who lost his wife on the flight, tried to hire mercenaries to exact revenge and had to be persuaded by family members to back down.
A grief counselor said of the 25 American families who have been flown here by the U.S. government: “It’s going to be a very difficult experience for them. A lot of issues are going to come to the forefront.”
Some, like Kathleen Flynn of Montville, N.J., who lost her son, John, were putting up a brave front yesterday.
“I’m glad this trial is finally beginning. It’s been a long time,” she said.
“Fhimah and Megrahi are like dirt to me. They were just bit players in this. It is my hope that this trial leads up the ladder to the real culprits, who are the highest-ranking officials in the Libyan government.”
Other family members, who have spent the past 10 years lobbying, pleading and cajoling governments on three continents for justice, were caught up in the incredible politics surrounding this most unusual international trial.
“We’ll be sitting in this high-tech court room. The suspects will be behind a bulletproof glass screen, and we’ll all be wearing headsets. It’s like we are being distanced before we even get there,” said Rosemary Wolfe, of Washington, D.C., who lost a daughter in the bombing.
She, like many family members, is worried about press reports that there are holes in the Scottish prosecutors’ case.
She also is concerned that the man they believe is ultimately responsible, Lybian strongman Moammar Khadafy, could be “rehabilitated” on the world stage so western nations can start doing business again in his oil-rich country.