The terrorism trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, has been postponed due to the discovery of new evidence. The trial, which had been scheduled to begin Wednesday in Washington, D.C., was delayed Monday by a judge who cited the new evidence without specifying its nature.
Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is the first individual to be prosecuted on American soil in connection with the bombing that killed 270 people, including 246 passengers, 11 on the ground in Lockerbie, and a majority of American citizens. The U.S. government obtained an interview from 2012 in which Al-Marimi allegedly admitted to constructing the bomb and participating in the attack, which U.S. officials stated was ordered by Libyan intelligence and that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had commended the team afterward.
For decades, families of the victims have sought justice in U.S. courts. Suse Lowenstein, whose son Alex was aboard Flight 103, has created a collection of 76 statues in her Montauk, New York backyard, each representing a grieving female relative. "The grief, everything, stays the same, just like this. This is always here," Lowenstein, 82, said. "And so, the feelings don’t go away."
Aphrodite Tsairis, whose daughter Alexia was killed, expressed that the delay was not surprising given the history of obstacles. "From the very beginning, we had to fight adversity," Tsairis, 83, said. She viewed the court proceedings as more of an "academic exercise" at this stage, recalling the 2000 trial in the Netherlands where one alleged accomplice was convicted and another acquitted.
Bert Ammerman, who lost his brother Thomas, believes the bombing was an act of war and that other nations should be held responsible, despite Libya's formal acceptance of responsibility and agreement to pay nearly $3 billion to victims' families in 2003. "This does not belong in the criminal arena," Ammerman stated. "This was an attack on the U.S. This was an act of war."
Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband Michael died in the attack, called the late emergence of evidence "astonishing" but found the delay somewhat easier to accept knowing more information may come to light. "It shows that there is still information out there, so that makes the delay somewhat less difficult to accept," said Bernstein, 75, who is vice president of the victims' advocacy group. "We are hopeful that it will increase our knowledge of what happened."
Lucas Lowenstein, son of Suse Lowenstein, hopes the new information will resolve lingering questions. "You can really go down a rabbit hole in wondering, ‘What did we miss? Is there more?’" he said. "At this point, I feel that they got the right people. I don’t believe there’s more to it."
Suse Lowenstein, while frustrated by the delay, remains confident in Al-Marimi's eventual conviction. "I hope they convict him and put him into the worst prison that the Americans have," she said. Her son Alex's recovered red jacket is displayed in her art studio, a reminder of the tragedy and her family's enduring connection to it.