Lockerbie bombing trial delayed after new evidence surfaces in case against Libyan suspect
A US federal judge has postponed the trial of Abu Agila Al-Marimi, charged over the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing that killed 270. New evidence disclosed to defence lawyers prompted the delay.
Lockerbie trial postponed as new evidence emerges days before jury selection
A federal judge in Washington has postponed the US trial of a former Libyan intelligence official accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, Google News MT reports. The ruling came on Monday — just two days before jury selection was due to begin.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, now in his mid-70s, faces two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death. His trial would have been the first on US soil for the attack of 21 December 1988, which killed all 259 passengers and crew on board and 11 residents of Lockerbie, Scotland, where falling wreckage destroyed an entire city block. In total, 270 people died, among them 190 Americans and 43 British nationals. Thirty-five of the victims were Syracuse University students returning from a semester abroad.
US District Judge Dabney Friedrich issued a brief order citing the "complex nature of the case," the newly discovered evidence, and the need for the defence to determine "how best to defend this case." The order did not specify what the evidence consists of.
Al-Marimi's lawyers said prosecutors had disclosed the new material to them on Saturday. Defence attorney Laura Koenig, an assistant federal public defender, stated that their "constitutional and ethical obligations require the defence to investigate this development" but declined to provide further detail in response to an Associated Press inquiry. A hearing has been scheduled for 1 September in Washington to discuss the status of proceedings.
Flight 103 was at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie when a bomb in the plane's forward cargo area exploded 38 minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow, bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
Prosecutors allege Al-Marimi carried out the bombing at the direction of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed during a 2011 civil war. According to investigators, Al-Marimi brought a suitcase containing the bomb to an airport in Malta and handed it to co-conspirators for a flight to Frankfurt, Germany. The suitcase then travelled from Frankfurt to London, where it was loaded onto Flight 103.
Al-Marimi worked for the Libyan intelligence service from approximately 1973 to 2011, reaching the rank of colonel, prosecutors say.
Two other Libyan intelligence agents were tried before a panel of Scottish judges at a former US military base in the Netherlands in 2000. One was convicted and the other acquitted, but the identity of the bombmaker remained unresolved for years.
Kara Weipz, board president of the nonprofit Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said her organisation had received no details about the nature of the new evidence. Her brother Richard Monetti was among the Syracuse students killed in the attack. Weipz described the delay as a shock, noting that some victims' relatives had already begun packing to travel 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."
If convicted, Al-Marimi faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Source: Google News MT