U.S. charges bombmaker in 1988 explosion
270 died when Pan Am flight fell over Scotland
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced new charges Monday against a Libyan bombmaker in the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, an attack that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground.
The charges were announced on the 32nd anniversary of the bombing and in the final news conference of Attorney General William Barr’s tenure, underscoring his personal attachment to a case that unfolded during his first stint at the Justice Department. He had announced an earlier set of charges against two other Libyan intelligence officials in his capacity as acting attorney general nearly 30 years ago, vowing that the investigation would continue.
In presenting new charges, the Justice Department is revisiting a case that deepened the chasm between the United States and Libya, laid bare the threat of international terrorism more than a decade before the Sept. 11 attacks and produced global investigations and punishing sanctions.
The case against the alleged
bombmaker, Abu Agela Masud Kheiral-marimi, is for now more theoretical than practical since Masud is not in U.S. custody and it is unclear if he ever will be, or if the evidence will be sufficient for conviction.
But it nonetheless represents one of the more consequential counterterrorism announcements from the Trump administration Justice
Department.
“At long last, this man responsible for killing Americans and many others will be subject to justice for his crimes,” Barr said.
A breakthrough in the investigation came when U.S. officials in 2017 received a copy of an interview that Masud, a longtime explosives expert for Libya’s intelligence service, had given to Libyan law enforcement in 2012 after being taken into custody following the collapse of the regime of the country’s leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
After Barr in 1991 announced charges against the two other men, Abdel Baset al-megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, the Libyan government balked at turning them over, skeptical the men could receive a fair trial. The country ultimately turned them over for prosecution before a panel of Scottish judges sitting in a Netherlands court as part of a special arrangement.
Al-megrahi was convicted while Fhimah was acquitted of all charges. Al-megrahi was given a life sentence, but Scottish authorities released him on humanitarian grounds in 2009 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He later died in Tripoli.
Masud remains in custody in Libya, but Barr said the U.S. and Scotland would use “every feasible and appropriate means” to bring him to trial.
The Pan Am flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988, en route to New York City and then Detroit. Among the 190 Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad.