Lockerbie bombing suspect to appear in court
2022.12.12 11:29
Lockerbie bombing suspect to appear in court
Budrigannews.com – The U.S. Justice Department announced that a Libyan intelligence agent who is believed to have created the bomb that killed 270 people on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 will appear in a federal court in Washington, D.C. on Monday.
The suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi was captured over the weekend in Libya, nearly 34 years after a bomb was placed on the Boeing (NYSE:). All 259 people aboard the 747, which was traveling from London to New York City, were killed, as well as 11 people on the ground.
Mas’ud is tentatively scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather at 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT), when he allegedly confessed to his crimes to a Libyan official in September 2012.
Mas’ud is one of three people who have been accused of being involved in the 1988 bombing by British and American authorities.
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Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, two additional Libyan intelligence agents, were charged with the bombing in 1991.
At a Scottish preliminary under the steady gaze of a court at Camp Zeist in The Netherlands, Megrahi was viewed as at legitimate fault for the bombarding in 2001 and was imprisoned forever. He passed away in 2012 at his home in Tripoli after being released due to cancer.
Scottish prosecutors have argued that Megrahi was not acting alone, despite the fact that Fhimah was found not guilty of any charges.
According to a sworn statement provided by an FBI agent in support of the government’s criminal complaint, U.S. investigators discovered evidence that one of the possible suspects went by the name “Abu Agela Masud” at the time of the bombing, but they were unable to locate him.
Mas’ud was not officially charged by the US until 2020, when it uncovered new proof uncovering he had obviously admitted his wrongdoings to a Libyan policing.
He was charged in a criminal complaint with using an explosive to destroy a vehicle used in interstate commerce and destroying an aircraft that killed someone.
However, no formal indictment against him has been made public since then.
According to a sworn statement made by an FBI agent in support of the government’s criminal complaint, Mas’ud “admitted to building the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 and to working with Megrahi and Fhimah to execute the plot” during the 2012 interview with the Libyan official.
According to the complaint, Mas’ud also stated to the interviewer that he was involved in other similar plots and that the Libyan intelligence leadership had ordered the bombing.
In addition, he asserted that Muammar Qadaffi, the rebel leader who was assassinated in October 2011, “thanked him and other members of the team for their successful attack on the United States.” Qadaffi was the former leader of Libya.
