Lockerbie bombing trial postponed after new evidence disclosed to defence
A US federal judge has delayed the trial of Libyan suspect Abu Agila Al-Marimi over the 1988 Pan Am bombing that killed 270 people, citing newly discovered evidence.
Lockerbie trial halted days before jury selection as prosecutors hand new material to defence
A US federal judge has postponed the trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, the Libyan man charged in connection with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, after prosecutors disclosed new evidence to defence lawyers over the weekend, TheJournal.ie reports.
Jury selection had been scheduled to begin on Wednesday in Washington, DC, before US District Judge Dabney Friedrich issued the order to delay. The judge did not specify the nature of the newly discovered material.
Al-Marimi's lawyers said prosecutors handed the evidence to them on Saturday and stated that their "constitutional and ethical obligations require the defence to investigate this development." Judge Friedrich has scheduled a hearing for 1 September in Washington to assess the status of the case.
Al-Marimi, now in his mid-70s, faces two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death — charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. His trial would be the first held in the United States over the 21 December 1988 attack.
Flight 103 was at 31,000 feet above Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, when a bomb in the plane's forward cargo area detonated 38 minutes after take-off from London Heathrow Airport. The aircraft was bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The explosion killed all 259 passengers and crew members on board and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie — a total of 270 dead. Citizens of 21 countries were among the victims, including 190 Americans and 43 from the United Kingdom.
Prosecutors allege Al-Marimi and co-conspirators carried out the bombing at the direction of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was ousted and killed during a civil war in 2011. Investigators believe Al-Marimi brought a suitcase containing the bomb to an airport in Malta and handed it to associates. The bag then travelled via Frankfurt to London, where it was loaded onto Flight 103.
Two other Libyan intelligence agents were tried before a panel of Scottish judges at a former US military base in the Netherlands in 2000. That tribunal convicted one official and acquitted the other, but the identity of the bombmaker remained unresolved for years.
Kara Weipz, board president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, whose brother Richard Monetti was among the Syracuse University students killed in the attack, said her organisation had received no details about the newly disclosed evidence that prompted the postponement. She 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."
Source: TheJournal.ie