by - A Libyan accused of making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 was detained in the United States.
- All 243 passengers and 16 crew members on board died, including 190 Americans.
- Eleven people died in the Scottish town of Lockerbie when the plane crashed.
Scottish officials said the US detained a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.
“The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi (“Mas’ud” or “) is the Scottish Crown Office and Prosecutor’s Financial Service, in a statement to Insider. Massoud”) is detained in the United States.”
The United States announced the charges against Mas’ud in 2020. When Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed mid-flight, all 243 passengers and 16 crew members on the flight were killed, including 190 Americans. Eleven people died in the Scottish town of Lockerbie when a Boeing 747 crashed on December 21, 1988.
As the plane was flying from Frankfurt, Germany, to Detroit via London and New York, the bomb exploded shortly after taking off from London’s Heathrow Airport.
According to the New York Times, in 2020 Mas’ud was in an Iranian prison on unrelated charges.
The BBC reported that Mas’ud was abducted by a militia group in Libya, leading to speculation that he could be handed over to US authorities to stand trial for the alleged crimes.
Documentary producer Ken Dornstein, whose brother was killed in the bombing, told the New York Times: “If there is only one person alive who can tell the story of the Flight 103 bombing and set aside the decades-old question of exactly how it happened – and why – Mr Mas’ud.”
“I guess the question is whether he’s finally ready to talk.”
The only person convicted of the Pan Am 103 bombing is Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines. He was tried in a specially convened Scottish court in the Netherlands in 2001 and was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of 270 murders.
Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer.
In 2003, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi admitted responsibility for the bombing and paid compensation to the families of the victims, but denied that he ordered the attack.
