A Libyan man accused of making the bomb that killed hundreds of people on Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 is now in U.S. custody, Scottish and American officials said Sunday.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi was charged two years ago for his alleged involvement in the bombing that killed all 259 people aboard the flight from London to New York and 11 people on the ground.
“No amount of time or distance will stop the United States and our Scottish partners from pursuing justice in this case,” then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in 2020 when the U.S. unsealed the charges.
The U.S. Justice Department said Sunday the U.S. had “taken custody of alleged Pan Am flight 103 bombmaker.” He is expected to make his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Two other men were previously tried in connection with the incident. Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah were accused of planting explosives in a portable cassette and radio player inside a suitcase on the flight. Fhimah was acquitted while Megrahi was sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2001.
However, the Scottish government released Megrahi on compassionate grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. He later returned to Libya and died in May 2012.