A suspect was detained on Sunday who was accused of creating the bomb that killed 259 people on Pan Am flight 103 and 11 people on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988.
The suspect, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, is being charged for his involvement in the incident as the “alleged Pan Am flight 103 bombmaker,” a spokesperson for the UK Crown Office and Prosecutor Fiscal Service told CNN.
He made his first federal court appearance in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
What happened with the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie?
On Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am flight 103 was flying from London to New York and crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, only 38 minutes after taking off. The impact, which took place at 7:03 p.m., killed all 259 people on the plane, and also killed 11 people who were in the area in Lockerbie.
Of the people who were killed, 190 were Americans and 35 were Syracuse University students who were returning home for the holidays after studying abroad, per AP News.
A bomb caused the explosion, and investigators discovered it located in a bronze Samsonite suitcase in the luggage compartment. It was loaded into the plane in Frankfurt, Germany, The Washington Post reported.
The attack was catastrophic and remains the deadliest terrorist attack to happen in the U.K.
What happens now with the Lockerbie bombing suspect detained?
Originally, the U.S. and Britain indicted accused Libyan intelligence agents Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah for the bombing. Both denied the accusations.
At the time, investigators suspected the two because of their “involvement from high-level aides to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi,” per The Washington Post.
Here’s a timeline of the convictions for this case:
- 1991: Criminal charges announced against Megrahi and Fhimah for the murders.
- 1999: Up until 1999, Gaddafi refused to release the accused officers to international authorities. At this point, they were available for a criminal trial, per BBC.
- 2001: Megrahi was found guilty of murder and recommended to serve a minimum 20-year prison sentence, while Fhimah was found not guilty and was able to return home free.
- 2008: Megrahi received a terminal cancer diagnosis, and after some back and forth with appeals, he was released “on compassionate grounds” in 2009 and returned to Libya, according to BBC. He died in 2012 at age 60.
- 2012: Mas’ud confessed to a Libyan law enforcement official that he did commit the bombing, per The Washington Post.
- 2017: After multiple failed attempts at an appeal of Megrahi’s conviction, the court finally agrees to reopen the case in 2017, after Megrahi’s family launched a big for an appeal.
- 2020: U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced criminal charges against Mas’ud, with evidence that he provided the suitcase that exploded, per CNN.
- 2022: Mas’ud did not enter a plea in court. He is charged with “two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death and one count of destruction of a vehicle used in foreign commerce by means of an explosive resulting in death,” NBC News reported.
Mas’ud will be detained in criminal custody without bond until his case is brought before a jury.