A Libyan man suspected of assembling and planning the bomb blast in Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people in December 1988, is being held by US authorities, Scottish authorities said on Sunday. “It became known to the families of the victims of the Lockerbie explosion that the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Masoud is being held by the US authorities.“Said the Public Prosecution Service of Scotland in a press release. “The Scottish Public Prosecution Service and the Police, in coordination with the US Government and US partners, will continue to pursue this investigation with the sole aim of bringing to justice those who acted on behalf of al-Megrahi.“The only convict in this case is added.
The target of the attack was the transatlantic flight from London to New York. The plane, a Pan Am Boeing 747, exploded on December 21, 1988 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and crew and 11 people on the ground. Only one person has been convicted of this attack: Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, who died in 2012. He has always maintained his innocence.
Responsibility of the Libyan regime
In December 2020, 32 years after the tragedy, the American justice announced that the former member of Muammar Gaddafi’s intelligence services, Abu Agila Mohammad Massoud, who was detained in Libya at the time, would be prosecuted. He is suspected of assembling and programming the bomb. However, it is not known when and under what conditions Abu Agila Mohammad Masoud surrendered to the American authorities. The Lockerbie attack is the deadliest attack ever on UK soil, but also the second deadliest attack on Americans after the 11 September 2001 attacks (190 killed).
The regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi officially accepted responsibility for the 2003 Lockerbie bombing and paid $2.7 billion in compensation to the victims’ families. The investigation was resumed in 2016, when the American justice system learned that Abu Agila Mohammad Massoud was arrested after the overthrow of the dictator and allegedly confessed to the intelligence services of the new Libyan regime in 2012.
Last year, Scottish justice dismissed the al-Megrai family’s appeal, saying “nowas not a miscarriage of justice“. Justice was also defended by the convict’s family, which believed that the documents related to the case, which the British authorities refuse to declassify, would make it possible to pass a different sentence.
Source: Le Figaro
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