Lockerbie terror attack ‘bombmaker’ is now in US custody
A man accused of being the bombmaker in Britain’s largest terrorist attack is now in US custody.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is accused of being the ‘third conspirator’ behind the downing of Pan Am flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
All 259 passengers and crew were killed by the explosion on the commercial plane travelling from London to New York.
The majority of those on board the jet were US citizens, including 35 students of Syracuse University in New York State.
Meanwhile, 11 more people died when the wreckage destroyed their homes.
‘The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi (‘Mas’ud’ or ‘Masoud’) is in US custody,’ a spokesperson for the Crown Office said.
‘Scottish prosecutors and police, working with UK government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with al-Megrahi to justice.’
Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up by the detonation of an explosive stored in a suitcase in the plane hold.
In 2020, Mas’ud was charged by the US Attorney General William Barr with being the third person involved in the terrorist attack.
At the time, he was said to be in Libyan custody and Mr Barr said US authorities would work ‘arm in arm’ with their Scottish counterparts.
Mr Barr said: ‘Let there be no mistake, no amount of time or distance will stop the US and our Scottish partners from pursuing justice in this case.’
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of mass murder in 2001.
He was the only man to be convicted over the attack.
Megrahi was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds while terminally ill with cancer, and died in Libya in 2012.
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