Lockerbie suspect extradition hope

LIBYA could work with the US to extradite a man wanted over the Lockerbie bombing.

Foreign minister Najla El-Mangoush told the BBC ‘positive outcomes are coming’ in the case of Abu Agila Mohammed Masud.

Masud was allegedly a top bomb-maker for former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The attack on Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York in 1988 killed 270 people, including 190 Americans.

It is the deadliest terrorist incident ever to have taken place in the UK, and the second most lethal air attack in US history. Of those killed, 11 were on the ground in the Dumfriesshire town. Libya took responsibility in 2003 and paid compensation to the families.

Miss El-Mangoush said the US and Libya were collaborating on the case.

Masud is a former intelligence official who is in a Libyan prison for unrelated charges. He has been charged in the US with terrorism-related crimes.

US officials claim he helped build the bomb that downed the aircraft and conspired with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed AlMegrahi, who was convicted of the bombing. He was freed by the SNP in 2009 on compassionate grounds and maintained his innocence until his death in 2012.

Former Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi was killed by rebels in 2011 and the country has since been beset by unrest. The current government wants good relations with the US, which wants Masud to be extradited.

American Kara Weipz, whose brother was killed in the bombing, said putting Masud on trial in the US would bring peace to the families of victims. But among bereaved relatives in the UK there are doubts. Some believe Iran was to blame and the new charges are a smokescreen.