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Lockerbie trial delayed
A federal judge postponed a U.S. trial for Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, after “the discovery of new evidence that defense attorneys want to examine.”
“citing the discovery of new evidence that defense attorneys want to examine”
Jury selection had been scheduled to begin Wednesday in Washington, D.C., for the federal trial tied to the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
NBC4 Washington said the judge’s order did not specify the nature of the newly discovered evidence, while Al-Marimi’s lawyers said prosecutors disclosed it to them on Saturday.
The bombing killed 270 people, most of them Americans, and prosecutors allege Al-Marimi and others carried out the attack at the direction of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The judge scheduled a Sept. 1 hearing in Washington to discuss the status of the case.
Defense seeks time
Al-Marimi’s lawyers told the court that their “constitutional and ethical obligations require the defense to investigate this development,” as the judge set a Sept. 1 hearing in Washington to discuss the case.
The BBC reported that lawyers acting for Al-Marimi said “newly discovered evidence” previously unknown to the defence and prosecutors from the US government emerged on Friday 21 August.
In Washington, D.C., the BBC said the trial judge Dabney Friedrich agreed the start date should be set aside, with the BBC understanding a new start date has been set for January next year.
The BBC also described the impact on relatives and on Al-Marimi himself, saying this latest delay means a verdict might not come until next spring.
The Associated Press account carried by NBC4 Washington said U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich’s order didn’t specify the nature of the newly discovered evidence.
What’s at stake
The U.S. case charges Al-Marimi with making the bomb that downed Pan Am Flight 103, and the NBC4 Washington account said the blast killed all 259 passengers and crew members and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie.
“killing 270 people, most of them Americans”
NBC4 Washington said Flight 103 was 31,000 feet over Lockerbie when a bomb in the plane’s forward cargo area exploded 38 minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport, with the flight bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
The AP account in NBC4 Washington said prosecutors believe Al-Marimi and others carried out the bombing at the direction of Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed during a 2011 civil war.
NBC4 Washington reported that Al-Marimi is charged in the U.S. with making the bomb that downed the airplane, and that his trial will be the first in the U.S. for the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing.
The BBC said Al-Marimi has denied building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people, and that he has been in U.S. custody since 2022.