Lockerbie disaster: Man accused of making bomb that blew up Pan Am flight 103 appears in US court | World News
The man accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 has appeared in court in the US.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al Marimi appeared in person at Washington DC federal court.
Wearing a green jumpsuit, he slowly entered the courthouse and spoke only to confirm his name. He was not invited to join a plea.
About 20 people whose relatives were killed in the bombing were present in the public gallery.
Among them was a widow with a daughter and a man whose father had lost his mother.
They were a few of the many families destroyed by the biggest terrorist attack in British history.
“I did this [pursuing justice] for 34 years,” a relative, Stephanie Bernstein, told Sky News.
“My daughter was 7 years old when my husband was killed… The US government will take care of its citizens in life and in death… grateful to the Biden administration.”
The proceedings lasted less than an hour and paved the way for a further detention hearing on December 27.
Mas’ud said, through the federal attorneys assigned to him, that he has not yet been able to appoint his own attorney. He has had a week to do so and he will remain in custody.
243 passengers and 16 crew on board were all killed
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Key questions after US arrest of man accused of Lockerbie bombing
Investigation concluded that the bomb was placed in the suitcase
Mas’ud has long been sought by prosecutors and suspected of being a “third person” behind the downing of an American plane over Lockerbie in December 34 years ago.
The massive 747 was at 31,000 ft and just over half an hour after its transatlantic flight from London Heathrow to New York’s JFK airport a bomb exploded.
243 passengers and 16 crew members on board were all killed. On the ground, in the towns of Lockerbie in Dumfries and Galloway, 11 more people died as debris fell on homes.
A lengthy and meticulous investigation scoured 845 square miles of rural Scotland for debris. It concluded that the bomb had been placed inside a cassette player wrapped in clothing and placed inside a suitcase.
After the Libyan government claimed responsibility in 2003, two former members of its intelligence agency were arrested, extradited, and tried.
Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah was acquitted. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2012.
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Lockerbie bomb suspect arrested
Investigators are always suspicious of a third person
Megrahi, who twice failed to overturn her sentence, was released in 2009 and died in Libya in 2012.
But investigators always suspected a third man was part of the plot.
In 2011 after leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted, Mas’ud was arrested in Libya as part of a crackdown on regime loyalists.
The following year, he allegedly told a Libyan law enforcement official that he was the maker of the Lockerbie bomb.
This apparent confession in 2012 formed the basis for a US Justice Department lawsuit against him to be brought in 2020.
Details of how Mas’ud was transferred from Libyan custody to Americans have yet to be released.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al-Marimi is being held by the US
Scotland’s top law official meets US officials
The bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack in British history. People from 21 counties were killed.
Scotland’s top law officer welcomes Mas’ud . news in US custody.
“The steps taken by US judicial authorities are crucial and progress towards a legal breakthrough is welcomed by Scottish prosecutors and police,” Lord Advocate Representative Dorothy Bain KC said. know.
“The tragic events of December 1988 have bound Scotland and the United States together in deep loss and unwavering determination that all of these brutal offenders must be brought before the courts.”
She added: “For more than 20 years, the Crown Office and Financial Services of the Procuratorate have maintained a case team working on this investigation, bringing together many counterterrorism prosecuting experts, major crime investigation, forensic analysis, international cooperation and mutual legal assistance.”
Ms Bain said officials in Scotland and the US would continue to investigate the incident, “with the sole aim of bringing those who acted with al Megrahi to justice”.
She confirmed she will meet with US officials next week to discuss the case.
