Lockerbie bombing suspect trial delayed until next year

Daily Record

a day ago

The case is now scheduled for next April.
The trial of the man accused of making the Lockerbie bomb - the worst terrorist attack in UK history - has been delayed. Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi was due to go on trial last month.
But the case against the pensioner, who is known as Masud, was postponed due to how complex it is, and his poor health. It is now scheduled to go ahead in April next year.
‌
The new date for the case, which is to take place before a jury in Washington, was chosen at the request of the defence and prosecution teams lined up to conduct the trial.
‌
The BBC reports Masud has denied priming the explosive device which brought down Pan Am flight 103 on 21 December 1988, killing 270 people.
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.
Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.
You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.
All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in!
If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like.
To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
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.