A Libyan man suspected of making the bomb that blew up a passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 made his initial appearance in federal court Monday after he was taken into U.S. custody.
Abu Agila Mas’ud was charged in a three-count indictment — two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death and a count of destruction of a vehicle used in foreign commerce by means of an explosive resulting in death. The charges carry potential sentences of up to life in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson told the judge Monday that the Justice Department will not seek the death penalty
because the charges were not punishable by death at the time of the bombing. Today, those charges are punishable by the death penalty.Mas'ud, 71, did not enter a plea. He was represented by two public defenders; an interpreter was present, as well. Mas’ud indicated that he wants to try to retain his own counsel and that he has no health problems.
In arguing for Mas'ud to remain in detention, a federal prosecutor emphasized to the judge that he is accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 others on the ground. Of the 270 people who were killed, 190 were American. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in the United Kingdom.
Mas'ud did not argue against the government’s request that he be held in detention. He consented to be detained for one week while he waited to hear about his lawyer.
"I cannot talk until I see my attorney," he said through the interpreter.
Mas'ud was remanded into the custody of U.S. marshals and is being held without bond.
U.S. and Scottish authorities said Sunday that Mas’ud had been taken into custody. It was unclear how he had arrived in U.S. hands.
The bomb went
kaboom!38 minutes after takeoff as the Pan Am flight was on its way from London to New York. It crashed in Lockerbie, a small town in southwest Scotland about 80 miles south of the capital, Edinburgh.
White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall praised "the unrelenting efforts of the Department of Justice, Department of State, and their partners."
"Yesterday, the United States lawfully took custody of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al-Marimi and brought him to the United States where he faces charges for his alleged involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103," Sherwood-Randall said in a statement. "This action underscores the Biden Administration’s unwavering commitment to enforcing the rule of law and holding accountable those who inflict harm on Americans in acts of terrorism."
Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather set Dec. 19 for Mas’ud’s next court appearance. She also scheduled a detention hearing for Dec. 27.
Mas’ud will become the first Libyan operative to be tried on U.S. soil in connection with the bombing.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001 at a special court in the Netherlands overseen by three Scottish judges and no jury. He is so far the only person to have been convicted in the attack.
He was freed in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was terminally ill with cancer. Still protesting his innocence, he died in Libya three years later.
Another Libyan intelligence operative, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted of all charges.
| The Times of Israel has a photo of the miscreant, adding: |
The announcement of charges against Mas’ud on December 21, 2020, came on the 32nd anniversary of the bombing and in the final days of the tenure of then-attorney general William Barr. At the time of the announcement, Mas’ud was in Libyan custody. The criminal charges were a career bookend of sorts for Barr, who, in his first stint as attorney general in the early 1990s, had announced criminal charges against two other Libyan intelligence officials.
The Libyan government initially balked at turning over the two men, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, before ultimately surrendering them for prosecution before a panel of Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands as part of a special arrangement.
The Justice Department, which did not disclose how Mas’ud came to be taken into US custody, said Mas’ud faces two criminal counts related to the explosion.
Torn by civil war since 2011, Libya is divided between rival governments in the east and west, each backed by international patrons and numerous armed militias on the ground. Militia groups have amassed great wealth and power from kidnappings and their involvement in Libya’s lucrative human trafficking trade.
A breakthrough in the investigation came when US officials in 2017 received a copy of an interview that Mas’ud, a longtime explosives expert for Libya’s intelligence service, had given to Libyan law enforcement in 2012 after being taken into custody following the collapse of the government of the country’s leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi.
In that interview, US officials said, Mas’ud admitted building the bomb in the Pan Am attack and working with two other conspirators to carry out the attack. He also said the operation was ordered by Libyan intelligence and that Gaddafi thanked him and other members of the team after the attack, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.
That affidavit said Mas’ud told Libyan law enforcement that he flew to Malta to meet al-Megrahi and Fhimah. He handed Fhimah a medium-sized Samsonite suitcase containing a bomb, having already been instructed to set the timer so that the device would explode exactly 11 hours later, according to the document. He then flew to Tripoli, the FBI said.