A U.S. judge has postponed the trial of a Libyan man charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The decision came after prosecutors revealed new evidence in the case.
The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, en route from New York to London, killed all 259 passengers and crew aboard. A total of 190 Americans were among the victims. The disaster also led to 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie being killed.
Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Deen, a former Libyan missile technician, was charged in December 2020 with two criminal counts: destruction of an aircraft and causing injury resulting in death. He was reportedly in U.S. custody as of December 2020, though details surrounding his capture and transfer to the U.S. have not been fully disclosed.
Masud is alleged to have been a key player in the plot, which U.S. officials believe was carried out by Libya's former authoritarian leader Moammar Gadhafi. The U.S. has long sought to hold individuals accountable for the attack. In 2001, another Libyan national, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted of the bombing and sentenced to life in prison. He was later released on compassionate grounds in 2009 and died in 2012.