Jury selection for Libyan intelligence operative accused of building 1988 Pan Am bomb delayed days before start.
A US federal judge has postponed the trial of a former Libyan intelligence official charged with building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, after newly discovered evidence came to light just days before proceedings were due to begin.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, also known as Abu Agila Masud, faces charges in connection with the December 21, 1988 attack that killed all 259 people on board the New York-bound Boeing 747 and 11 residents on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Most of the victims were American.
Jury selection had been scheduled to start on Wednesday in a Washington, DC federal court-the first trial in the United States related to the bombing. US District Judge Dabney Friedrich ordered the postponement on Monday, citing the discovery of new evidence that defence lawyers need to examine, as well as material located in other countries and the overall complexity of the nearly 40-year-old case.
Lockerbie Bombing Trial Delayed Over New Evidence:
The judge’s brief order did not describe the nature of the new evidence. Defence attorneys said prosecutors disclosed it to them on Saturday and that their “constitutional and ethical obligations require the defence to investigate this development.” A status hearing has been set for September 1 to discuss next steps. No new trial date has yet been fixed, though some reports indicate a possible start in January 2027.
Masud, now in his mid-70s, has pleaded not guilty. He has been in US custody since December 2022. Prosecutors allege he constructed the bomb and point to an alleged confession he made to a Libyan police officer in 2012, a year after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s government. Masud’s lawyers have challenged the reliability of that statement, claiming it was made under duress, though the judge previously ruled it admissible.
Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing in 2003 and paid compensation to victims’ families, but the case has remained a focus of international investigation. Two other Libyans were previously tried under Scottish law at a special court in the Netherlands; one was convicted and later released on compassionate grounds, while the other was acquitted.
The latest delay marks the third postponement of Masud’s US trial, which had already been put back due to the volume of evidence and the defendant’s health. Relatives of some victims expressed disappointment at the further wait after travelling or preparing to attend the long-awaited proceedings.
The Lockerbie bombing remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in aviation history and a landmark case in international efforts to hold individuals accountable for state-sponsored terrorism.
Lockerbie Bombing: 1988 Attack and US Trial:
On the evening of 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747 en route from London Heathrow to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, was destroyed by a bomb in its forward cargo hold. The aircraft exploded at about 31,000 feet over the town of Lockerbie in southern Scotland, killing all 259 people on board-the majority of them American-and 11 residents on the ground. It remains one of the deadliest acts of aviation terrorism in history and prompted one of the largest joint criminal investigations ever undertaken by British and American authorities.
Investigators eventually linked the attack to Libyan intelligence. In 2001, a special Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted Abdelbaset al-Megrahi of involvement in the bombing and sentenced him to life imprisonment; a second Libyan defendant, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was acquitted. Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 and died in 2012. Libya, under Muammar Gaddafi, formally accepted responsibility for the attack in 2003 and paid compensation to the victims’ families, though questions about the full chain of command and other possible participants have persisted for decades.
In December 2020 the United States charged Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence operative, with constructing the bomb. He was taken into US custody in 2022 and has pleaded not guilty. His case marks the first criminal trial in an American court directly related to the Lockerbie bombing. Prosecutors rely in part on an alleged confession he made to a Libyan officer in 2012; his defence team has contested the reliability of that statement and of other evidence gathered over nearly four decades.