Former Libyan intelligence operative accused of building Lockerbie bomb due in US court

A man accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie more than 36 years ago is scheduled to attend an evidentiary court hearing in the United States on Wednesday.

Prosecutors allege Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence operative, made the bomb that exploded in the airplane’s cargo area.

All 259 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 747 were killed, along with 11 people in Lockerbie who died when the plane fell on their homes.

It remains the biggest terror attack to have taken place on British soil.

In 2023, Mas’ud pleaded not guilty to three charges including two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death, and a further count of destruction of a vehicle resulting in death.

He was initially due to go on trial in Washington on May 12, but district court judge Dabney L Friedrich agreed to a postponement following submissions from the prosecution and defence.

According to a court document, lawyers had raised the issue of the case’s complexity, and the amount of time they had to adequately prepare for both pretrial proceedings and the trial itself.

Lawyers also referred to the issue of “voluminous discovery, including evidence located in other countries”, and the need for the defence to determine how best to defend the case.

Mas’ud is scheduled to appear at the United States Courthouse in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only man convicted in relation to the bombing, after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting at a special court in the Hague in 2001.

He was sent to prison in Scotland but was controversially granted compassionate release in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, returning home to Libya where he died in 2012.

Prosecutors have always maintained that Megrahi acted with others in carrying out the attack.