The United States announced indictments against Abu Aguila Massoud two years ago, alleging that he played a key role in the December 21, 1988 bombings.270 killed in Boeing 747 explosion. This is the worst terrorist attack on the British mainland. All 259 of his passengers and crew aboard Jumbo’s jet, which was flying from London to New York, died, plus he died in Lockerbie when his home was destroyed by debris. Massoud was reportedly kidnapped by a Libyan militia group last month, leading to speculation that he might be turned over to American authorities to stand trial. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice told Reuters that Masud will appear in federal court in Washington for the first time.
Five years ago, he had served time in Libya for making a bomb.In 2001, Abdelbaset Almegrahi was tried in a specially convened Scottish court in the Netherlands, after which he was found guilty of the Pan Am 103 bombing.He was the only man convicted of assault.Megahi was imprisoned for the rest of his life, but was released by the Scottish government in 2009 for pathetic reasons after being diagnosed with cancer. Died in Libya in 2012.Masoud, who is being held in a Libyan prison, is said to have confessed to conspiring with Megahi to blow up the plane.Megrahi’s lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said Masud was indeed in the care of a warlord “universally convicted of human rights abuses” – he said the circumstances under which such a confession was drawn were , said it would be decided by a US or Scottish court. Megahi, who has always maintained his innocence, has filed two appeals against a 27-year sentence.
One failed and the other was abandoned. Thirty-four years after the Pan Am 103 crash, the story of the Lockerbie bombing has been repeated many times.Lockerbie’s first trial, much less his second, is highly unlikely until Nelson Mandela brokers negotiations and two Libyan suspects are turned over to Scottish courts based in the Netherlands. It seemed so.One of them was convicted of bombing a plane, but it was always the prosecutor’s case that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi worked with others.The fall of Gaddafi’s government in 2011 raised hopes that more suspects could be brought to justice before the country plunged into violent political instability again.In 2020, outgoing U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced the indictment of Abu Aguila against his Massoud, and behind the scenes, prosecutors in his office, Scottish Police detectives, and their U.S. counterparts continued to pursue the case. I was working on it. The announcement that Massoud is now in U.S. custody means that the second trial of the biggest mass murder in British law history could be conducted under U.S. law rather than Scottish law. The spokesperson added. We continue to work closely with our partners within the UK government and with US agencies, as well as the Scottish Crown Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Fiscal Service, to support the continued pursuit of justice for those responsible.”
