London
CNN
—
A Libyan man accused of helping to make the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie in December 1988 is currently in US custody, US and Scottish authorities said on Sunday.
The United States has indicted Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi for his alleged involvement in the bombing two years ago, a spokesman for the British Crown Office and the Service told CNN. prosecutor’s tax.
The attack killed 270 people when the bomb exploded over the Scottish city as it flew from London to New York.
The US Department of Justice issued a statement on Sunday morning confirming that the United States had “arrested alleged Pan Am Flight 103 bomb maker” Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, saying he should to make his “first appearance in the American District”. Court of the District of Columbia,” according to a spokesperson.
The statement did not identify a specific date for his court appearance, but said more details would be forthcoming.
The British official told CNN that “the families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been informed that the suspect ‘Mas’ud’ or ‘Masoud’ is in US custody. “Scottish prosecutors and police, together with the UK government and their US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing to justice those who acted with Al Megrahi.”
Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was accused along with Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah planting explosives in a portable boombox that was inside a suitcase on the plane. Megrahi was sentenced in 2001 to 27 years in prison, but was released from prison after being diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2012. Fhimah was acquitted.
The Lockerbie bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack to take place in the UK. It killed 259 people aboard the airliner, as well as 11 on the ground.
