12/13/2022–|Last Updated: 12/13/202204:29 (Makkah Al-Mukarramah)
The US Justice Department said a former Libyan security official accused of fabricating the bomb that killed 259 aboard Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, appeared in federal court on Monday in Washington, DC.
The defendant, Abu Ajila Muhammad Masoud Khair Al-Marimi, faces two criminal charges related to the Lockerbie incident: Abu Ajila was arrested in Libya after the fall of the Gaddafi regime and US officials have not mentioned how he got to the States United.
The bombing that occurred aboard the aircraft over Lockerbie killed all 259 people on board, as well as 11 people on the ground.
Abu Ageila’s appearance before a US court comes nearly 34 years after a bomb exploded aboard a “Boeing 747” plane bound for London to New York, and Libyan media reported in mid-November that “Abu Ageila was kidnapped from his home “in Tripoli”.
The United States charged Abu Ageila two years ago in connection with the Lockerbie bombing, in which most of the victims were American.
Upon his arrival in the United States, he was transferred to a Justice Department facility in Alexandria, Virginia to complete the initial stages of processing his case file.
On Sunday, Scottish prosecutors announced Abu Ageila was being held by US authorities, but did not provide details on how he was transferred from Libya.
US reports said the aforementioned confessed to his crimes to a Libyan official at a law enforcement agency in September 2012.
Abu Ageila is one of three people suspected by US and British security officials of being involved in the 1988 bombing.
In 1991, two other Libyan intelligence agents, Abd al-Basit Ali al-Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, were charged with the bombing.
Former Libyan intelligence officer, Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi, spent 7 years in a Scottish prison after being convicted in this case in 2001, and died in Libya in 2012. Al-Megrahi has always pleaded not guilty .
Fhimah was acquitted of all charges, but Scottish prosecutors said Megrahi did not act alone.
Interestingly, Muammar Gaddafi’s regime paid more than two billion dollars in 2008 to the families of the victims to close the file.
The investigation into the case was reopened in 2016 when the US judiciary learned of Abu Ageila’s arrest after the fall of the Gaddafi regime and that he had made an alleged confession to Libya’s new regime’s intelligence in 2012.
At the time of the bombing, US investigators revealed that one of the potential suspects was named “Abu Aguila Masoud,” but they were unable to locate him, according to testimony from an FBI agent.
Libyan criticism
In response to Abu Ageila’s appearance before a US judge, Libyan National Security Advisor Ibrahim Abu Shanaf said no new lawsuits should be opened in the Lockerbie case after the deal was reached.
This was stated in a statement released by Abu Shanaf, in which he said: “After the United States announces the capture of citizen Abu Ajila, we remind American officials of their commitments and the legislation issued in resolving the Lockerbie case.”
The statement indicated that the settlement agreement with Libya provided that “after the payment of funds and compensation (to the families of the victims) it is not permissible to open new actions for any acts committed by the two parties against the other before the date of the agreement”.
He added: “The United States has committed, under the agreement, to provide sovereign and diplomatic immunity to Libya, and that the families of the victims will not receive any compensation from the joint fund designated for the purpose, until after providing this immunity.”
“The US Congress also passed a law in August 2008 stipulating that Libyan property and those involved in the case must be safe from seizure or any other prosecution,” he added.
