A U.S. federal judge on Monday delayed the long-awaited trial of a former Libyan intelligence officer accused of involvement in the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, after newly uncovered evidence emerged that defense lawyers say they need time to review.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi faces charges in the United States for allegedly building the explosive device that brought down the aircraft, killing 270 people, the majority of them Americans. Jury selection in his federal trial in Washington, D.C., had been set to start Wednesday, marking what would have been the first U.S. trial tied to the Dec. 21, 1988, terrorist attack.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich did not disclose in her order what the newly discovered evidence involves.
Friedrich set a status hearing for Sept. 1 in Washington to address the next steps in the case. In a brief order, the judge pointed to the case’s complexity, the emergence of new evidence and “the need for the defense to determine how best to defend this case” as the basis for pushing back the trial.
Alexandria Sheriff’s Office via AP
Pan Am Flight 103 was flying at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie when a bomb detonated in the forward cargo hold just 38 minutes after the plane departed London Heathrow Airport. The aircraft had been headed to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
The explosion killed all 259 passengers and crew on board, along with 11 people in Lockerbie, where falling debris devastated an entire city block. Victims came from 21 countries, including 190 Americans and 43 people from the United Kingdom. Among those who died were 35 Syracuse University students traveling home after a semester abroad.
According to the FBI, before the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing stood as “one of the world’s most lethal acts of air terrorism and one of the largest and most complex acts of international terrorism ever investigated” by the bureau.
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Kara Weipz, who serves as board president of the nonprofit Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said the group has not been given details about the evidence that led to the postponement. Weipz’s brother, Richard Monetti, was one of the Syracuse University students killed in the bombing.
She called the delay a shock and noted that some victims’ relatives were already packing to head to the trial.
“At the same time, for almost 38 years we’ve been seeking the truth of what happened,” Weipz said. “If that’s what this is, then that’s a good thing, and this delay is worth it. … It’s important to hear all the facts.”
Prosecutors allege Al-Marimi and others carried out the bombing at the direction of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who was ousted and killed during a 2011 civil war.
Al-Marimi, 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. In February 2023, public defender Whitney Minter entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Two other Libyan intelligence agents were tried by a panel of Scottish judges on a former U.S. military base in the Netherlands in 2000. The tribunal convicted one official and acquitted the other, but the bombmaker’s possible identity remained a mystery for years.
According to prosecutors, Al-Marimi worked for the Libyan intelligence service as an explosives expert from approximately 1973 to 2011, rising to the rank of colonel, and had ties to Libya and Tunisia.
Prosecutors believe he brought a suitcase containing a bomb to an airport in Malta and gave it to co-conspirators for a flight to Frankfurt, Germany. The suitcase traveled from Frankfurt to London, where it was loaded onto Flight 103, according to investigators.
Al-Marimi was first charged in 2020 and later indicted in December 2022 before he was transferred to U.S. custody.
