New Lockerbie bomb suspect ‘admitted role eight years ago’
He told Libyan officials he ‘prepared suitcase that could carry explosives’
THE alleged Lockerbie bomb-maker confessed eight years ago to downing the airliner, it was revealed as he was charged in the US yesterday.
Abu Agila Mohammad Masud told Libyan officials in 2012 he made the explosive device that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988, court papers disclosed.
Masud has been hunted by the US and Scottish authorities since his name first came up in 1991. But he evaded investigators to the point some thought him ‘a ghost’.
US Attorney General William Barr unveiled charges against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s one-time top bombmaker and told of hopes he would be extradited to face justice.
The announcement was intended to provide solace on the 32nd anniversary of the attack to the families of the 270 people killed, including 11 on the ground in Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire.
But some said it was an inappropriate day when they just wanted to remember their loved ones.
At the Department of Justice in Washington, Mr Barr said that he was ‘pleased’ to announce charges for ‘the third conspirator, Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, for his role in the bombing’.
Ex-Libyan intelligence official Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was jailed for life in 2001 for the attack after trial in a specially convened Scottish court in the Netherlands. Another former Libyan intelligence agent, Lamen Fhima, was cleared by the court.
Mr Barr said: ‘Let there be no mistake, no amount of time or distance will stop the United States and our Scottish partners in pursuing justice in this case.’
Masud is currently locked up in Libya having been rounded up following the death of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011.
He now faces a US charge of ‘destruction of an aircraft resulting in death’. US court documents revealed he was questioned by the Libyans about his bomb-making in 2012, which the FBI became aware of in 2017 and was a ‘ big breakthrough’, Mr Barr said.
In the interview, Masud admitted to committing the bombing of the LaBelle Discotheque in Berlin, West Germany, in 1986, which killed two US servicemen, a woman and injured scores. He said that he had participated in the ‘Lockerbie airplane bombing’ and confirmed that it was ordered by Libyan intelligence leadership.
Masud said that after the operation, Gaddafi himself ‘thanked him and other members of the team for their successful attack on the United States’.
The charging document says there is ‘probable cause to believe Masud was tasked to prepare a suitcase capable of carrying concealed explosives’.
Masud said he was asked by his superiors in Libyan intelligence to fly to Malta with the suitcase in December 1988 where he met Megrahi and Fhimah. They told him to get up at 7am precisely the next day and set a timer on the device to explode 11 hours later.
According to prosecutors, the case travelled unaccompanied to Frankfurt where it was transferred to Pan Am Flight 103A, a feeder flight for Pan Am Flight 103, which took off from Heathrow before exploding over Lockerbie. The document says: ‘ Masud l ater heard an American plane was brought down by an explosion, and he was sure that the suitcase he had prepared earlier had been used in the operation.’
Mr Barr said the Scottish authorities have ‘not ruled out bringing charges of t heir own’ once Megrahi’s posthumous appeal at the High Court in Edinburgh has concluded.
The Lord Advocate, James Wolffe, said: ‘We will not comment in detail on today’s announcement given that the Scottish criminal investigation is ongoing and there is an appeal before the court in relation to this crime.’
But ahead of Mr Barr’s briefing, the father of a British victim criticised the timing of the charges to the anniversary of the attack.
John Mosey, whose daughter, Helga, 19, was killed, said he and his wife felt the timing was ‘bizarre, disrespectful, i nsensitive and extremely ill considered’.
‘Pursuing justice in this case’