On Monday, a federal judge postponed the trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The trial was set to begin in Washington, D.C., and would be the first U.S. trial for this tragic event, which took 270 lives.
The trial was delayed following the discovery of new evidence. Al-Marimi’s defense team stated they need time to examine this development to fulfill their constitutional and ethical duties. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ordered the postponement due to the complex nature of the case and the need for thorough defense preparation.
A hearing is set for September 1 to review the case status. Although the nature of the new evidence remains undisclosed, defense attorney Laura Koenig declined to comment when questioned by the Associated Press.
“For almost 38 years we’ve been seeking the truth of what happened,” said Kara Weipz, board president of the nonprofit Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, whose brother was among the Syracuse University students killed.
Flight 103 exploded 38 minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow while en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. A bomb exploded 31,000 feet above Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all on board and 11 on the ground as debris destroyed a city block.
Al-Marimi, now in his mid-70s, faces charges of making the bomb on orders from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Prosecutors allege he transported a bomb in a suitcase from Malta to Frankfurt, and then to London, where it boarded Flight 103. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.
A 2000 trial in the Netherlands of two other Libyan intelligence agents related to the bombing found one guilty and the other acquitted. Al-Marimi’s identity as the bombmaker was unknown for years until recent allegations.