New suspect ‘to be charged over Lockerbie’ af ter 32 years

CHARGES against a new suspect in the Lockerbie bombing are expected to be made by prosecutors i n the United States within days.

The Justice Department plans to seek the extradition of Abu Agila Mohammad Masud for trial in US federal court.

The New York Times says Masud’s exact whereabouts are unknown.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Masud is currently being held in Libya. This has not been confirmed by the Libyan authorities.

The bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, on December 21, 1988, killed 270 people.

Eleven of the victims were people on the ground killed by debris.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and jailed for life. He was the only person convicted of the attack.

A appeal has been launched by the family of Megrahi, who died in 2012 after his release on compassionate grounds.

The case relating to Mr Masud, filed by prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in Washington DC, is said to be based largely on a confession that Masud is al l eged t o have gi ven to Libyan authorities in 2012.

This was reportedly turned over to Scottish authorities in 2017, as well as travel and immigration records of Masud.

It’s thought the case against Masud will be unveiled by US Attorney General William Barr at a press conference in the next few days as one of his last official public acts before he steps down for a second time.

It was Mr Barr who announced US charges against Megrahi and another Libyan official in his first major press conference in his first stint in the job in 1991.

Announcing the case as acting attorney general in the Bush administration in 1991, Mr Barr had said: ‘We will not rest until all those responsible are brought to justice.’

Megrahi was released eight years after his 2001 conviction after he developed prostate cancer. He died, aged 60, in Tripoli in May 2012.

His family is appealing against the verdict, which was made by a special panel of judges without a jury.

Megrahi’s first appeal against his conviction was refused by the High Court in 2002.

Last month, the High Court in Edinburgh sitting as the Court of Appeal was told trial judges were entitled to infer Megrahi was involved in the bombing.

Advocate depute Ronald Clancy, for the Crown, said Megrahi’s use of a false passport to travel to Malta – from where a plane connecting to the Pan Am flight left – and other evidence formed a pattern that suggested his involvement.

The latest appeal against Megrahi’s conviction was lodged after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission ruled a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

It argues that ‘no reasonable jury’ could have returned a guilty verdict,.

The Megrahi family’s legal team have argued documents relating to a key witness would have ‘destroyed’ the case if they had been disclosed.

‘Plans to seek extradition’