Lockerbie bombing suspect’s indictment delayed as family struggles to hire defense lawyer: report

The Libyan intelligence operative arrested last month on charges of making the bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland more than 34 years ago, was due to stand trial Wednesday in Washington, D.C., but family members said they had problems, according to the report, providing defense counsel.

Thus, the indictment of Abu Agila Mohammad Masoud Khair al-Marimi was postponed to 8 February.

U.S. Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya officially appointed federal public defender Whitney Minter to represent him on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

According to the publication, Minter told the judge that the Massoud family could not hire a lawyer on their own. The public defender requested additional time to review the indictment with Massoud before filing a guilty plea or responding to the government’s request to keep him in jail pending trial.

The December 21, 1988, attack killed 270 people, including 190 Americans, dozens of them college students who flew back to New York for Christmas after studying abroad. On December 12, the US Department of Justice announced Massoud’s arrest. A 71-year-old man from Tunisia and Libya became the first suspect to be charged in the United States in connection with the Lockerbie attack after a three-decade investigation by Scottish and American law enforcement agencies.

Lockerbie bombing suspect in custody

Officials examine the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988 in Lockerbie, Scotland.
(Georges De Kerlay/Getty Images)

Upadhyaya also set the date for the detention hearing to be February 23rd. According to Reuters, Minter told the court that Massoud had no significant assets and had been out of work for ten years. According to Minter, the alleged bomb maker is paying off the mortgage on the house in Libya, and his children are helping to cover his living and medical expenses.

Just 38 minutes after taking off from London Heathrow en route to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, a bomb in the forward cargo hold of a Boeing 747 exploded 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, destroying the plane almost instantly. Ministry of Justice.

All 259 people on board were killed, and 11 more died on the ground.

This image provided by the Alexandria, Virginia Sheriff’s Office shows Abu Aguila Mohammad Masood Kheir Al-Marimi, who is in custody at the Alexandria Adult Detention Center on December 12, 2022 in Alexandria, Virginia.
(Alexandria Sheriff’s Office via AP)

Among the 190 missing Americans were 35 Syracuse University students who had returned home to the United States for vacation after a semester of study abroad.

Of the 43 victims from the United Kingdom, eleven Lockerbies died on the ground when the fiery debris from the crashing plane destroyed an entire city block of houses.

Paul Hudson, whose daughter Melina was one of the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing at Lockerbie, holds a banner with photos of other victims outside a federal courthouse ahead of the trial of the Libyan accused of making the bomb that blew up the plane. December 12, 2022 Washington DC
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In what was considered the largest international terrorist act in the United States and the United Kingdom at the time, citizens of Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago were also among those killed.

In 1991, two suspects – Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi (Megrahi) and Lamen Khalifa Fhima (Fhima) – were indicted in both the US and the UK in connection with the Lockerbie bombing.

Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband Michael Bernstein was killed in the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, speaks to reporters outside a federal court following the trial of a Libyan man accused of making the plane bomb December 12, 2022 in Washington . , COLUMBIA REGION.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

They were judged by a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. Fima was acquitted. Despite being found guilty in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison, Megrahi was later released by Scottish authorities in 2009 because he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died at home in Tripoli in 2012, according to Reuters.

Massoud was charged in a criminal case in December 2020 but was not charged until November 2022.

Families of victims of a Pan Am 103 crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland by a terrorist bomb arrive at JFK Airport, New York, New York, December 21, 1988.
(Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images)

The complaint alleges that from around 1973 to 2011, Massoud worked for the External Security Organization (ESO), the Libyan intelligence service that carried out terrorist attacks against other countries, in various positions, including as a technical expert on explosive devices. In the winter of 1988, a Libyan intelligence officer allegedly ordered Massoud to fly to Malta with a prepared suitcase. There he was met by Megrahi and Fhimah at the airport, the complaint says.

December 21, 1988 photograph of a mourning woman at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport after learning of the explosion of a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie that killed all 259 passengers, including her son.
(MARIA BASTON/AFP via Getty Images)

A few days later, Megrahi and Fhima instructed Masoud to set a timer on a device in the suitcase for the next morning so that the explosion would happen exactly eleven hours later. Megrahi and Fhima were both at the airport on the morning of December 21, 1988, and Massoud handed over the suitcase to Fhima after Fhima signaled him to do so, the complaint said. Fhima then allegedly placed the suitcase on a conveyor belt. Massoud subsequently boarded a Libyan flight to Tripoli.

Part of the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 after it crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland on December 22, 1988.
(Tom Stoddart/Getty Images)

Days after returning to Libya, Massoud and Megrahi met with a senior Libyan intelligence official who thanked them, the complaint said. Three months later, Massoud and Fhima allegedly met with then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who thanked them for doing a great national duty against the Americans, with Gaddafi adding that the operation was a “complete success”.

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If Masoud is found guilty, he faces the maximum sentence of life in prison.

Reuters reported that prosecutors had no plans to seek the death penalty because it was not legally mandated at the time of the alleged crime.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.