Abu Agila Mohammed Mas’ud’s alleged involvement in the Pan-Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland
A lot has happened between the Pan Am Flight 103 explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the US taking custody of suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi.
Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, 38 minutes after takeoff from London. The plane was carrying more than 250 people when it crashed, killing 11 people on the ground.
Dec. 15, 1998: A US appeals court rules relatives of the 189 Americans killed in the bombing can sue Libya for its possible role in sponsoring the attack.
November 2008: Then-US Sen. Frank Lautenberg announced at a press conference that the families of American victims of the Pan-Am bombing have received final compensation from the Libyan government. Each family received about $10 million, paid in installments between 2004 and 2008.
Kenny MacAskill, Scottish Justice Secretary, announces that Megrahi will be released from prison on compassionate grounds. After being released, Megrahi returns to Libya and receives a jubilant welcome.
The US and Scotland announced on Sunday that Mas’ud was in their custody. The US charged Mas’ud with his alleged involvement in the bombing, according to a spokesman for the UK Crown Office and Prosecutor Fiscal Service.
The Libyan embassy bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, a terrorist attack on the Lockerbie town, California, in December 1988
Editor’s Note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a vice president at New America and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of The Cost of Chaos. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. There is more opinion on CNN.
The bomb was placed on a timer and Pan Am 103 was flying over land rather than over the ocean, but this is important because the terrorist plot worked well for the Libyans. The jet would have flown over the ocean if the plane had blown up slightly later, thus making the investigation of the crash site impossible.
Reagan closed the Libya embassy in Washington, DC, and expelled the Libyan diplomats in the United States due to their support for international terrorism.
A bomb went off in the La Belle discotheque in Berlin on April 5, 1986, and it was frequented by off-duty US servicemen. The bombing killed two US soldiers and a Turkish woman, and injured more than 200 others.
The claim that Gadhafi’s infant daughter was killed in these strikes has been questioned in recent years. Other Gadhafi family members were reported to have been wounded in the strikes, one of which hit one of the dictator’s residences.
Ga dictator took more than two years to avenge against the US. Libyan intelligence agents created a bomb out of a radio cassette player.
Scottish authorities were able to recover the plane and its contents on their soil. That led investigators to the suitcase that had contained the bomb and, in an astonishing piece of detective work, ultimately led them to the Libyan intelligence agents that had overseen the bombing.
A Libyan man accused of being involved in making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie in Scotland in December 1988 made an initial court appearance Monday in a federal court in Washington, DC, where he was formally charged in connection with the terrorist attack.
Abu Azimuth Mas’ud, the first person tried for a murder in the United Kingdom, is yet to be charged with the death penalty
Though Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi was informed by US Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather of the three criminal counts he’s been charged with by the government and read his rights, he did not enter a plea, citing the need to retain counsel before proceeding in the case.
The death penalty, life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 were included in the charges against Mas’ud. Federal prosecutors said they do not plan to pursue the death penalty in the case because the punishment was not constitutionally available the year the crime was committed.
Mas’ud, who had a white beard and was dressed in a prison outfit, walked at a slow pace to the defense table where he would listen to an interpreter. He spoke very little, but did tell the judge he “took some medication and I have some flu,” the interpreter said.
Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband was killed in the attack, told reporters outside the courthouse following the hearing that it’s “fitting that we are coming up on the 34th anniversary of the bombing and that we, at last, have the man responsible for making the bomb.”
Bernstein’s husband was the assistant deputy director of the DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Office of Special Investigations which was charged with prosecuting Nazis.
She said it was a pleasure to be at the court for Mas’ud’s initial appearance. He is the first person to be tried for my husband’s death on US soil.
The chief legal officer of the Scottish government will meet with US prosecutors in Washington “next week” regarding the Lockerbie investigation, they said in a statement Monday.
“I am going to Washington, DC, next week where I will have meetings with US prosecutors and attend commemorative events to mark the anniversary of the tragedy,” Scottish Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain said in the statement. “Ongoing engagement here and in the US between law enforcement authorities, and with families who lost loved ones, is an important feature of this case.”
The bombing in a Scottish town that killed hundreds of people was the deadliest terrorist attack in the United Kingdom.