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DATE=8/23/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=LOCKERBIE TRIAL (L-ONLY) NUMBER=2-265776 BYLINE=RON PEMSTEIN DATELINE=CAMP ZEIST CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: The appearance of the key witness in the trial of two Libyan suspects in the bombing of a Pan Am airliner in 1988 has been delayed. Ron Pemstein reports from the trial site in Camp Zeist, the Netherlands that his testimony was postponed while the U-S Central Intelligence Agency attempts to satisfy the defense's request for documents. TEXT: The Central Intelligence Agency documents concern a Libyan defector who is expected to give crucial evidence against the two Libyans on trial here. When the trial resumed after a summer recess on Tuesday, the defense lawyers complained that documents concerning Abdul Majid - also known as Ghaka - have been made available in full to the prosecution but the copies seen by the defense had been heavily edited. Prosecutor Alastair Campell has told the court that good progress has been made in convincing the C-I-A to provide the trial with a fresh version of 25 cables before Mr. Majid testifies. His testimony is now expected to start on Monday after the defense studies new documents with fewer deletions. Mr. Majid, a former Libyan intelligence officer, worked as an assistant manager of the Libyan Arab Airways office in Malta. He was also a double agent for the C-I-A. The prosecution charges that the two Libyan defendants were also intelligence officers and that they used their positions at the airline to place a bomb in a suitcase in Malta that was later transferred to the doomed Pan Am airliner. The plane exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21st, 1988, killing 270 people. When Mr. Majid testifies his face will be hidden from spectators and his voice will be disguised. He started working for the C-I-A in Malta in August 1988 and later moved to the United States. He lives there under an assumed name, protected by the U-S Government's witness-protection program. The Scottish court sitting here in the Netherlands has no authority to command a foreign intelligence service such as the C-I-A to reveal anything. But the U-S government does not want to undermine a trial of two Libyans accused of killing Americans. Two thirds of the victims of the Pan Am explosion were U-S citizens. The defense lawyers charged their clients' right to a fair trial would he violated if they did not have full access to the C-I-A cables. While they recognize certain portions of the cables concern code names, the defense says it needs full details about payments made to Mr. Majid by the C-I-A and to assess the quality of information he provided in return. Until Mr. Majid appears - in disguise - the trial continues with technical witnesses from airports in Malta, Germany and Britain. (Signed) NEB/RP/GE/FC 23-Aug-2000 09:09 AM EDT (23-Aug-2000 1309 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .