US trial of Libyan charged in 1988 Pan Am Lockerbie bombing postponed over new evidence
A US federal judge has delayed the trial of former Libyan intelligence officer Abu Agila Masud, accused in the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, after new evidence surfaced that the defence says it must investigate. The trial, the first in the US over the Lockerbie disaster, was postponed just before jury selection was set to begin.
US District Judge Dabney Friedrich has postponed the trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence official charged over the 21 December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above Lockerbie, Scotland. Jury selection had been set to start Wednesday in Washington, but the judge delayed proceedings, citing newly discovered evidence that defence lawyers want to examine.
The judge's order did not specify the nature of the evidence. Al-Marimi's lawyers said prosecutors disclosed it to them on Saturday and stated that their "constitutional and ethical obligations require the defence to investigate this development." Assistant federal public defender Laura Koenig declined to elaborate. A hearing on the case's status has been scheduled for 1 September in Washington.
The trial would be the first held in the US over the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people — all 259 people aboard the aircraft and 11 on the ground. The bomb exploded 38 minutes after the flight left London Heathrow, while the plane was 9.45 kilometres over Lockerbie en route to New York. Victims came from 21 countries, including 190 Americans and 43 Britons, among them 35 Syracuse University students returning from a semester abroad.
Kara Weipz, president of the nonprofit Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and sister of a victim, said her organisation had received no details about the new evidence but said that after nearly 38 years of seeking the truth, a delay would be worthwhile if it helps establish the full facts.
Prosecutors allege the bombing was carried out on the orders of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, killed during the 2011 civil war. Two other Libyan intelligence agents were tried in the Netherlands in 2000 by a panel of Scottish judges, with one convicted and one acquitted. Al-Marimi, now in his mid-70s, faces two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death and a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
