Lockerbie bombing trial in the US delayed until next year
The explosion killed 259 passengers and crew and a further 11 people in the Dumfries and Galloway town when wreckage of the Boeing 747 fell on their homes.It remains the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United Kingdom.Masud, who is in his early 70s, is described as a joint citizen of Libya and Tunisia.He has been receiving treatment for a non-life threatening medical condition.In a joint status report to the US district court for the District of Columbia last month, both parties referred to the "complex, international nature" of evidence in the case, adding that a pre-trial schedule would be "atypical".Lawyers also requested an early deadline for motions to "suppress the defendant's statement," presumed to be an alleged confession Masud made while in jail in Libya in 2012.The claim, which is said to be of "importance to the [US] government's case," alleges that Masud admitted working for the Libyan intelligence service and confessed to building the device which brought down the aircraft.
It is also alleged he named two accomplices, Abdelbasset Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah.Megrahi was convicted of murdering the 270 victims and died in Tripoli in 2012 after being freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government.Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, his co-accused in the trial at the Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands, was found not guilty.Scottish and US prosecutors first named Masud as a suspect in the case in 2015 following the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in Libya.He was charged five years later by then-US attorney general William Barr with the destruction of an aircraft resulting in death.Masud was taken into US custody in 2022 after being removed from his home by an armed militia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
This is proof Keir Starmer has only incentivised Hamas to inflict more agony, says ALAN MENDOZA
The limitless cruelty of Hamas is starkly visible in every jutting bone of Evyatar David, the restaurant worker held hostage by Palestinian terrorists since he was seized at gunpoint at a music festival in the October 7 atrocities. In sickening video footage released by Hamas, David was shown close to death from starvation and torture, apparently being forced to dig his own grave. However appalled we are at the images – also controlled and released by Hamas – of starving Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, it ought to be unthinkable that a British government rewards a terrorist organisation for the brutal mistreatment and exploitation of innocent hostages. Yet that is what Sir Keir Starmer has done, by offering to recognise a Palestinian state next month if an immediate ceasefire is not agreed – by Israel alone. In doing so, he has incentivised Hamas to inflict agonies on the hostages, while allowing its own civilian population to starve. And he has placed himself in a seemingly impossible political situation. Both courses of action – either following through on his threat, or performing another U-turn – are likely to destroy his premiership. Make no mistake, it is Hamas only that benefits from the hideous photographs of starvation in Gaza – the scale of which, it is important to note, remains unverified by international reporters who are not allowed into the territory. Hamas is one of the main reasons the flow of aid and distribution of food in Gaza has broken down. The United Nations has been so infiltrated and compromised by Palestinian extremists that their aid workers refuse to co-operate with the Israeli army. The result is an impasse that leaves children dying from hunger while food rots at the Gaza border and while the terrorist leaders gloat that they're winning the propaganda war. Proof of this came in the footage of Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas politician, crowing to Arab news station Al Jazeera about support from Britain, France and Canada. With his jacket open over a well-fed stomach, Hamad sneered: 'The initiative by several countries to recognise a Palestinian state is one of the fruits of October 7.' What an appalling indictment of British foreign policy: a terrorist militia, proscribed under our own laws, boasting of the successes brought about by their slaughter in cold blood of unarmed civilians, many of them women and even children. How is it possible for our Prime Minister to be so naive and badly advised? What did he imagine would be the result of his statement last week? He has rewarded Hamas for everything they have done, and promised a bigger reward if they keep doing it. His obscenely stupid decision is, of course, the result of panic in the Labour ranks. His MPs, including many in his Cabinet, are desperate to fend off the threat to their seats that comes from pro-Palestine Muslim voters in their own constituencies, as well as from the creation of a new, ultra-Left party by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has a majority of just 528, in an area where a third of the population are Muslim. The Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, represents a seat with a 53 per cent Muslim population, and a majority of 3,421. Even a small number among them would tip the balance. In A craven attempt to placate anti-Israeli voters who could wipe out his government at the next General Election, Starmer has sacrificed British strategic interests as well as our moral standing. Our main ally, the US, is disgusted with us, and rightly so. He has removed all pretence that Britain can play a future role in the Middle East as any kind of honest broker. This is a foreign policy designed for Bradford and Birmingham, not the international stage. And it won't work because only a fool would believe that extremists will do anything other than pocket this appeasement before demanding more. To press ahead now with recognising a Palestinian state will do the UK irreparable harm. But to back out will be deeply unpopular with his backbenchers and with his Cabinet. If this proves Keir Starmer's downfall, it will be entirely self-inflicted
Times
5 hours ago
- Times
Police ‘harassed' pensioner over Gaza protest T-shirt
Officers have been accused of political policing, harassment and intimidation of a 78-year-old protester charged under terrorism legislation for allegedly wearing a T-shirt in support of the banned group Palestine Action. Mick Napier, co-founder of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was arrested at a protest in Edinburgh on July 19 and spent a night in the cells before being released on bail on standard conditions. He said that during President Trump's trip to Scotland last month, officers had visited his home seven times, claiming they were there to remind him of his bail conditions. Napier's lawyer, Mark Harrower, has lodged a complaint with Police Scotland, claiming the actions were 'nothing short of harassment'. In it, he wrote that his client was a 'peaceful protester against the killing and starvation of innocent civilians in Gaza' who had been released on bail on July 22. Speaking to the Sunday Mail, he said: 'Since then, he has received seven separate visits from police officers at his home address to check whether he is aware of his bail conditions.' • Record number of arrests at Palestine Action protests across UK Harrower said that after the fourth visit, he had contacted the force to say Napier wanted the visits to stop. Yet they continued. The lawyer wrote: 'The only possible explanation for these repeated visits is to intimidate my client and his wife. 'Not only is this a huge waste of police resources, this behaviour makes Scotland look like it is turning into a police state. It is nothing short of harassment.' Harrower said that similar visits had been made to the homes of other protesters, raising concerns that police were becoming 'politically involved'. He said: 'It was clearly designed to intimidate them into not participating in any protests when Trump was in the country because it would've been embarrassing. 'It's really concerning. It curtails people's right to protest and freedom of speech and shouldn't be happening.' Palestine Action became a proscribed terrorist organisation last month after two Voyager military aircraft were vandalised at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20. Membership of, or support for, the group became a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Police Scotland said: 'We carry out appropriate checks as required in line with conditions imposed by the courts.'
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Fifth person charged over break-in at RAF base
A fifth person has been charged by counter-terrorism police in connection with a break-in at RAF Brize Norton in which two military aircraft were Umer Khalid, 22, has been accused of offences under the Criminal Law Act of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for purposes prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United incident in June saw activists break into the Oxfordshire air base and spray paint two RAF Voyager planes, causing £7m Palestine Action, which has since been proscribed by the government, said it was behind the incident. Khalid, of no fixed abode, was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on people were charged with the same offences last month. Two other people were arrested - a woman remains under investigation on police bail while a man has been released without Action has engaged in activities that have predominantly targeted arms companies since the start of the war in government moved to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws after the group claimed responsibility for the June incident. It has since won permission to challenge the ban.
