34 years after the plane attack: the USA arrested the suspect in the manufacture of the bomb
In 1988, the worst terrorist attack that Britain has ever known took place, when an American plane that made its way to New York exploded over the soil of Scotland, killing 270 people.
A Libyan citizen suspected of making the deadly bomb that was placed on a commercial plane and detonated over Scotland in 1988, killing all passengers, is in American custody.
Flight 103 of the former American airline Pan Am, traveling from London to New York, exploded over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11 others on the ground after the plane crashed in a populated area, in what is considered the terrorist attack The hardest Britain has ever known.
Among the hundreds of dead were 190 Americans – dozens of them Syracuse University students returning home after finishing a semester abroad.
Two years ago, the United States accused Abu Ajala Masoud Khair al-Marimi of his involvement in the serious attack, and now the American Department of Justice has confirmed that he is in custody. “He is expected to appear in the District of Columbia Court. More details, including information regarding his first public appearance, will be published later,” said the ministry’s spokesperson.
The Justice Department announced the new charges against Massoud on the 32nd anniversary of the attack, in December 2020. Bill Barr, then the attorney general, said at the time that the charges were “the product of decades of hard work by certified investigators and prosecutors determined in their dogged pursuit of justice for our citizens , the citizens of the United Kingdom, and the citizens from 19 other countries who were murdered by terrorists acting on behalf of the Muammar Gaddafi regime.”
“For all relatives and families, we cannot take away your pain, but we can seek justice for you,” he said at the time.
The only person to receive a sentence for the attack is former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbast al-Magrahi, who was convicted in 2001. He tried twice to appeal the conviction but was unsuccessful, but was finally released from prison in 2009 on a compassionate basis, because he was terminally ill with cancer. He died in Libya a decade ago, still protesting his innocence.
After the announcement of Masoud’s arrest, Scotland said: “Prosecutors and the Scottish police, who are working with the British government and colleagues in the US, will continue this investigation with the aim of bringing to justice those who acted together with al-Magrahi.”
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