US unveils new charges against suspect in 1988 Lockerbie bombing
A Libyan man accused of being the bomb-maker behind the terrorist attack that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 has been charged in a US court for his alleged role in the murder of 270 people.
Mohammed Abouagela Masud was charged on the 32nd anniversary of the bombing, which took place on 21 December 1988, killing all 259 people on the plane as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. Some 190 of the victims were American.
Announcing the charges in Washington DC, William Barr said: “On this day 32 years ago a bomb destroyed Pan Am flight 103 as it flew 31,000ft over Lockerbie, Scotland. The Lockerbie bombing remains the deadliest single terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom, and the second deadliest terrorist attack in American history” after 9/11.
The attorney general went on: “Let there be no mistake, no matter of time and distance will stop the United States and our Scottish partners from pursuing justice in this case.”
The new charges represent the third Libyan to have prosecuted over the past 30 years in relation to the Lockerbie bombing. In November 1991, two intelligence officials – Abdel Baset alMegrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah – were charged.
They were put on trial eight years later. Megrahi received a life sentence which he served until his release in 2009, and Fhimah was acquitted.
In the new criminal complaint released on Monday, Masud is charged with having built the bomb that blew up the aircraft. He is described as having been one of the top bombmakers for the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Masud is also accused in the complaint of working with Megrahi and Fhimah as a co-conspirator, helping the other two place the bomb inside a suitcase that was planted on a feeder flight and from there on to Pan Am flight 103.
The indictment alleges that the bombing was carried out under the orders of Libyan intelligence. “After the downing of the aircraft, Gaddafi had personally thanked Masud for the successful attack on the United States,” Barr said.
Monday’s unsealing of the charges against Masud was the product of a personal mission by Barr. In one of his first acts during his initial term as the chief prosecutor under George H Bush, he laid out the 1991 indictments.
The charges were likely to be Barr’s final act as attorney general in his second stint under Donald Trump. He is expected to stand down from the post on Wednesday.
The unsealing of the indictment on the anniversary of the bombing has provoked fiercely divided opinion, including among the families of those who died. Barr was joined at his press conference by Kara Weipz, who was billed as a representative of victims and families.
“We are justified, vindicated. Our patience has proved fruitful today.
Family members have not let anyone forget our loved ones who were lost on that tragic night,” she said.
Other family members were highly critical of the decision to make the announcement on the anniversary of the bombing. “We consider the timing and particularly the choice of this specific day, which is special to many of us, to be bizarre, disrespectful, insensitive and extremely ill-considered. Why exactly when the attorney general is about to leave office, has he waited 32 years to bring charges?” said the Rev John Mosey, father of 19-year-old Helga who was murdered on Pan Am Flight 103.
Barr also faced criticism from the family of Megrahi, the only person yet convicted of the attack. A posthumous appeal is set to be heard in the Scottish courts. The lawyer representing Megrahi’s family at the appeal, Aamer Anwar, said in a statement: “Monday is just another desperate excuse to accuse Libya and after 32 years want to accuse another Libyan. Why now? Where were they in the past 32 years, especially when we have been fighting for an appeal over the last 6 years, so why release this information now?”
At the center of the new charges against Masud is an interview from 2012 in which he is alleged to have confessed to Libyan intelligence while in custody after the fall of the Gaddafi regime. Barr said a copy of the transcript of the interview was supplied by Libya to US law enforcement.
The complaint alleges that a wealth of other evidence, including forensic remains from Lockerbie and flight records, connected Masud to the bombing. He is said to have travelled from Tripoli to Malta on 20 December 1988 where he had allegedly worked with Megrahi and Fhimah to arm the bomb, returning to Tripoli on the morning of the 21st.
Masud is still being held in Libyan custody. Were he to be extradited to the US, it would pave the way for the first trial on American soil to flow from the Lockerbie bombing.
Asked whether he thought Libya would hand him over for extradition, Barr said: “We think the prospects are very good. Masud is in the custody of the current government of Libya and we have no reason to believe they would want to associate themselves with this heinous act.”