Camp Zeist, Netherlands - Prosecutors raised the stakes in the Lockerbie bombing trial yesterday, asking the court to drop lesser charges and find the two Libyan defendants guilty on a single count of murder.
Lawyers deleted charges of conspiracy to murder and violation of aviation security and sought a guilty verdict on one charge that the pair murdered 270 people in the 1988 airliner bombing over the Scottish town.
Commentators said it was a high-risk strategy, staking all on proving the toughest of the three charges against Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima.