The Libyan suspect in the attack on a passenger plane that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 is being held in the United States, US and Scottish authorities announced on Sunday.
“The families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing have been informed that the suspect, Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, is in US custody.”the Administrative Services of the Crown and the Tax and Customs Administration announced in a statement quoted by the AP.
The US Department of Justice confirmed the information and added that the suspect will appear for the first time before a judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Since the 1988 incident, only one person has been prosecuted for bombing Pan Am Flight 103. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, spent seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001.
Mohmet al-Megrahi was released on medical grounds in 2009 and died in Libya in 2012, always defending his innocence.
Pan Am Flight 103, en route from London to New York, exploded over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board the plane and 11 others on the ground.
It remains the deadliest terrorist attack on British soil.
The United States Department of Justice announced new charges against Al-Marimi in December 2020, on the 32nd anniversary of the attack.
“Finally, this man responsible for killing Americans and many others will be brought to justice for his crimes,” then-Attorney General William Barr said at a news conference.
Source: DN
