US Detains Libyan Suspect Accused of Lockerbie Plane Bombing
A Dec. 23, 1988 file photo shows Scottish rescue workers and crash investigators searching the area around the cockpit of Pan Am Flight 103, in a farmer’s field, east of Lockerbie, Scotland. Photo: Reuters / Greg Bos.
i24 News – Abu Agila Masud, who is accused of making the bomb that exploded on a Pan Am flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie killing 270 people, is in US custody, Scottish prosecutors said on Sunday.
The charges against the Libyan man who allegedly played a key role in the terrorist attack, were announced two years ago. According to US Attorney General William Barr, Masud “helped build the device that blew up the aircraft.”
US and Scottish investigators have been building a case for years against the suspect, who was allegedly a top bombmaker for the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
He had previously been held in Libya for his alleged involvement in a 1986 attack on a Berlin nightclub. Last month Masud was reportedly kidnapped by a militia group in Libya.
Two other Libyan suspects were put on trial in the Netherlands for their roles in the attack. One of them, Abdelbaset Mohmet Al-Megrahi, was convicted in 2001. A former Libyan intelligence officer, he was sentenced to life in prison but was released in 2009 and died in 2012.
The 1988 bombing of the Boeing 747 became the deadliest terrorist act carried out in the UK. The plane was heading from London to New York. All 259 passengers and crew members died in the crash that also killed 11 residents of Lockerbie.