Libyan PM admits government role in sending Lockerbie bomb suspect to US
One of Libya’s rival prime ministers has admitted that his government was involved in the extradition to the US of a former Libyan intelligence officer accused of making the bomb that downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing all onboard.
US authorities announced on Sunday they had arrested former intelligence officer Mohammed Abouagela Masud . The next day, Mas’ud appeared at federal court in Washington and was charged with an act of international terrorism. US officials did not explain how he was taken into their custody.
In a televised broadcast on Thursday evening, Libya’s prime minister, Hamid Dbeibah, said Masud’s extradition was lawful and his government was simply cooperating with an “international judicial framework to extradite accused citizens”. It was his first comment on the extradition.
In 20-minute speech, Dbeibah named Masud as the bombmaker for the Lockerbie attack that killed 270 people and said that Libya “had to wipe the mark of terrorism from the Libyan people’s forehead”. He provided no hard evidence for any of his allegations and did not elaborate on his government’s role in Masud’s handover.
The US and Libya have no formal extradition agreement.
A day before, Libya’s chief public prosecutor, Saddiq Al-Sour, had announced there would be an investigation into Masud’s extradition following a complaint from the suspect’s family. The Tripoli-based prosecutor provided no details about the investigation.
Masud was “kidnapped” from his family home in Tripoli by armed men in November, according to a statement issued by his family shortly after the alleged incident. It was unclear if any of the family witnessed Masud’s alleged abduction.
In that statement, the family condemned Libyan authorities for their silence over the incident and for any extradition process that could later take place.
Engulfed by over a decade of civil conflict, Libya is divided between the government of Dbeibah in Tripoli and a rival government based in eastern Libya headed by prime minister Fathi Bashagha. In western Libya, militia groups have accumulated vast wealth and power from kidnappings and their control over the country’s lucrative human trafficking trade.
On Tuesday, Bashagha called Masud’s extradition illegal and urged his immediate release.
Masud’s extradition has added to discontent among Libyans, long frustrated by years of chaos and division. In Facebook videos posted Thursday, people in Tripoli were seen carrying posters that blamed Dbeibah and his allied militia forces for Masud’s extradition. In statements broadcast Thursday, two of Libya’s influential tribal groups also condemned the move.
The New York-bound Pan Am flight exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie after taking off from London on 21 December 1988, killing 259 people onboard and 11 on the ground. Among the dead were 190 American citizens.