Monitor: All the News of the World - International comment on the extradition of the alleged Lockerbie bombers to Holland

DARK AND dirty American and British secrets as well as Libyan secrets may well be revealed during this trial. Many questions will arise over the next two years - the time likely to elapse before a verdict is given. There will be much obfuscation and duplicity. Scots should steel themselves for an imperfect outcome to the trial. The suspects may well finally go free, and we will still only know part of the truth.

The Scotsman

ON THE face of it, all sides are happy: the relatives of the 1988 Pan Am 103 crash victims, because the impending trial is what they had fought for all along; Britain and America, because Libya has finally agreed to hand over the suspects; and not least the Libyans, because the long nightmare that began in 1992 is about to end. But couldn't the different parties have reached the same understanding a long time ago? In the end, Libya's defence of its two citizens in the face of adversity has been vindicated by the international community's decision to hold the trial in a neutral country.

Khaleej Times, UAE

THE TRIAL itself is unlikely to be sensational, but will feature a wealth of technical detail and evidence which will tax the understanding of the three judges who will hear the case without a jury. The presentation of the case by prosecutors will also be far from easy. As Professor Robert Black has already reminded us, many of the most important witness statements were gathered a decade ago, and there is no guarantee that these witnesses will be traceable, even alive, today. Yet the trial will go ahead, and for anyone with a belief in the primacy of justice, that will suffice for now.

Daily Herald, Scotland

THE WORLD is being asked to believe that Abdel al-Megrahi and Al-Aman Khalifa Fahima were acting on their own. This is pretty hard to believe in a government like Libya's, where all authority flows from the leader downward. Is it believable that Khadafi, chafing under the sanctions, is throwing two underlings to the wolves? It's all too believable, given his well-known mercurial nature.

Boston Herald