What to know: US court hearing held for alleged Lockerbie bombmaker

A United States judge has scheduled a hearing in Washington, DC, to discuss the case against a former Libyan intelligence official accused of participating in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, an attack on a commercial aeroplane that killed everyone on board.

The case concerns Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, who reportedly worked for Libya’s external security organisation at the time of the bombing.

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Federal prosecutors have accused Mas’ud of delivering the bomb that was later loaded onto Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988.

His trial is expected to be the first held in the US for the Lockerbie bombing. Hundreds of people, many of them Americans, were killed in the explosion.

A court hearing is currently scheduled for Tuesday, but the trial has long been delayed.

Jury selection was set to begin last week. But US District Judge Dabney Friedrich unexpectedly postponed the trial, citing the discovery of new evidence. The delay is designed to give Mas’ud’s defence team time to review the new material.

It is yet another stunning development in a saga that has witnessed countless twists and turns. Here’s what you need to know:

A police officer walks by the broken nose of Pan Am Flight 103 in a field near the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, after the plane’s explosion on December 21, 1988 [Martin Cleaver/AP Photo]

What is this case about?

The US has accused Mas’ud of making the bomb that downed a Pan American Airways plane bound for New York City.

Just over half an hour after it took off from London’s Heathrow airport, the flight exploded, killing all 259 people on board, including passengers and crew.

The plane was 9.45km (31,000 feet) over Scotland when the bomb went off, and the wreckage tumbled onto the town of Lockerbie, destroying an entire city block and killing 11 people on the ground.

The death toll included citizens of 21 countries, including 190 Americans and 43 from the United Kingdom. The passengers included 35 students from New York’s Syracuse University who were returning from a semester abroad.

Nearly four decades later, the bombing remains the deadliest “terrorist” attack in UK history.

What is the new evidence?

Judge Friedrich did not specify the nature of the newly discovered evidence.

According to The Associated Press news agency, Mas’ud’s lawyers said federal prosecutors disclosed the new evidence to them days before jury selection was scheduled to begin.

They added that “constitutional and ethical obligations require the defense to investigate this development”.

Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is in custody at a detention centre in Alexandria, Virginia [File: Alexandria Sheriff’s Office via AP]

What is Mas’ud charged with?

The possible identity of the Lockerbie bombmaker has remained a mystery for years, but US prosecutors have accused Mas’ud of taking part in making and planting the explosive.

Mas’ud, now in his mid-70s, is charged with two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

He has denied building the bomb and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

US officials charged Mas’ud on December 21, 2020 – nearly 32 years to the day after the bombing. He was arrested two years later.

What do prosecutors say happened?

According to US prosecutors, Mas’ud worked for the Libyan intelligence service from approximately 1973 to 2011, rising to the rank of colonel.

The US government alleges that Mas’ud and others carried out the bombing at the direction of then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was ousted and killed during the country’s civil war in 2011.

Prosecutors say Mas’ud flew from Libya to Malta with a bomb concealed in a Samsonite suitcase. Upon meeting his co-conspirators, he allegedly set the bomb’s timer to go off 11 hours later.

From there, Mas’ud is accused of handing the bomb to a co-conspirator, who placed the suitcase on an airport conveyor belt, before returning to the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

What other cases have occurred?

Two other suspected Libyan intelligence agents, Abd al-Basit al-Magrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahimah, were tried by a panel of Scottish judges in the Netherlands in 2000.

The court acquitted Fahimah and convicted al-Magrahi in 2001, sentencing him to life imprisonment.

Al-Magrahi was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 and died in Libya in 2012. Fahimah died on August 25 this year. US prosecutors believe they met Mas’ud in Malta to plant the bomb.

A floral tribute is placed beside the Lockerbie bombing memorial stone on the 30th anniversary of the attack, December 21, 2018 [Scott Heppell/AP Photo]

Why has it taken so long for this case to be tried?

The Lockerbie bombing has been the subject of a joint Scottish-US investigation since December 1988.

Mas’ud has been in US custody since 2022. He was originally due to stand trial in May 2025.

That date was set aside following a joint request from the prosecution and defence, who cited the complexity of the case and Mas’ud’s ill health.

The trial was scheduled for this past April, but was called off again after Mas’ud’s legal team asked for more time to prepare.

When could the trial start?

Judge Friedrich has agreed that the trial’s start date should be pushed back. It is now expected that the trial may not start until next year.