By Tony Winterburn • Published: 16 Dec 2020 • 22:57
New Suspect To Be Charged Over 1988 Lockerbie Airline Bombing.
A NEW suspect in the 1988 Lockerbie Pan Am terror bombing is to be charged, say American Federal prosecutors. They are expected to unseal new charges against a bomb-maker linked to the 1988 attack on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, according to a report.
Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, a top bomb-maker for the late Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy, has been accused of constructing the explosive that downed the airliner and killed 270 people on board- Masud is currently being held by Libyan authorities. The Justice Department said it will now launch a bid to have him extradited to the US over the next few days to stand trial.
The New York-bound flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988. Among the Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad. The attack, caused by a bomb packed into a suitcase, killed 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.
In 1992, the U.N. Security Council imposed arms sales and air travel sanctions against Libya to prod Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the country’s leader, into surrendering the two suspects. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing and sentenced to 20 (later 27) years in prison. He was released on humanitarian grounds soon after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, he died from the disease three months later. The other man, Lamin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted. The Libyan government eventually agreed to pay damages to the families of the victims of the attack.
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