Lockerbie suspect charged
A man charged yesterday with making the bomb used in the Lockerbie terrorist attack confessed his crime in an interview with the Libyan authorities, US law enforcement has alleged.
Abu Agila Masud was accused of packing explosives into a Samsonite suitcase that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in charges unsealed exactly 32 years after the terror attack.
Masud allegedly made the confession in a 2012 interview with a Libyan law enforcement officer after being incarcerated following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, the country’s dictator, according to an FBI affidavit.
US investigators who obtained a transcript of the interview called it a critical moment that led to the charges, once combined in the ensuing years with evidence from the scene and travel records.
The Lockerbie bombing on December 21 1988 killed 270 people, mostly American. There were 43 British casualties, including 11 on the ground in Lockerbie. It remains the deadliest single terrorist attack in modern UK history.
The issuing of charges represents the biggest breakthrough in the investigation for more than a decade. William Barr, the US attorney general, praised the investigators for the ‘‘toil, tears and sweat’’ they put into the case over the decades as he announced the charges at a press conference.
He said: ‘‘Let there be no mistake: no amount of time or distance will stop the United States and its partners in Scotland from pursuing justice.’’
Kara Weipz, whose brother Rick Monetti died on the flight and who now leads an advocacy group for victims’ relatives, welcomed the news as a major ‘‘step forward’’. She said: ‘‘We will continue to pursue justice for all who were responsible for this bombing. But today is a small victory.’’
Masud is the third alleged conspirator to be charged. Abdel Baset al-megrahi and Al-amin Khalifa Fhimah, were charged in 1991.
Megrahi was convicted by Scottish judges in 2001 but was released from prison in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died three years later. Fhimah was acquitted.
Masud is being held by Libyan authorities and it remains to be seen whether he will stand trial and if so, in which country.
Barr said he hoped Masud would stand trial in America and was optimistic the Libyan government would co-operate. It is possible Scottish investigators could bring their own charges but any such move is limited by an appeal to have Megrahi’s conviction posthumously overturned.
James Wolffe QC, the Lord Advocate, and Scottish police welcomed the news but declined to comment further.
Aamer Anwar, the lawyer leading the Megrahi appeal, criticised the timing of the announcement, alleging it was an attempt to ensure that the appeal failed.
The reigniting of the case more than three decades after the event was credited to the joint persistence of FBI agents and Scottish investigators.
Initial evidence came from the painstaking scouring of debris from the flight, spread over a huge area around Lockerbie.
Calling it ‘‘the largest crime scene in world history’’ US officials said every blade of grass had been meticulously searched. Amid the debris were fragments of clothing traced back to a shop in Malta, scorched Samsonite luggage sold in the Middle East and a circuit board made in Zurich.
Parts of a Toshiba radiocassette recorder with evidence of an explosive charge on it were also found.
Investigators suspected Masud early in the investigation but were unable to press charges.
In the later developments, they were able to cite travel records showing his movements and his links to the original suspects.