Lockerbie 'bombmaker' taken into custody by US authorities

A Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed a Pan Am flight over Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people, has been taken into US custody.

On Wednesday 21 December 1988, a police officer walks past the cockpit of Pan Am Flight 103 in a field near the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, where it lay after a bomb exploded on board, killing a total of 270 people. © AP - Martin Cleaver

Abu Agila Mohammad Masud was charged by the United States two years ago for the Lockerbie bombing – in which Americans made up a majority of the victims.

He had previously been held in Libya for alleged involvement in a 1986 attack on a Berlin nightclub.

On Sunday, the US Justice Department confirmed in a statement that Masud was in American custody, following an announcement by Scottish prosecutors, without saying how the suspect ended up in US hands.

A department spokesperson said Masud is expected to make an appearance in a federal court in the US capital, without specifying when.

We will never forget those lost, and we will never stop working to make sure that all those responsible for the Lockerbie bombing are brought to justice.https://t.co/CDt1iRrhzB

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 11, 2022

Deadliest attack in UK history

According to The New York Times, Masud was arrested by the FBI and is in the process of being extradited to the United States to face prosecution.

Only one individual has so far been prosecuted for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 on December 21, 1988 – which remains the deadliest terror attack on British soil.

The New York-bound aircraft was blown up 38 minutes after it took off from London, sending the main fuselage plunging to the ground in the town of Lockerbie and spreading debris over a vast area.

The bombing killed 259 people including 190 Americans on board, and 11 people on the ground.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001. 

He died in Libya in 2012, always maintaining his innocence.

• Lockerbie bomber appeal gets underway in Scotland
• Lockerbie bomber Megrahi dies in Libya

Libyan connection

Meanwhile, Scottish officials have given no information on when Masud was handed over to the US authorities, and his fate has been tied up in the warring factionalism of Libyan politics.

He was reportedly kidnapped by a Libyan militia group following his detention for the Berlin attack which killed two US soldiers and a Turkish citizen.

Masud was reputedly a leading bombmaker for Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi and according to the US indictment, he assembled and programmed the bomb that brought down the Pan Am jet.

The investigation was relaunched in 2016 when Washington learned of Masud's arrest, following Kadhafi's death in 2011, and his reported confession of involvement to the new Libyan regime in 2012.

However, the Libyan connection to Lockerbie has long been disputed.

In January 2021, Megrahi's family lost a posthumous appeal in Scotland against his conviction, following an independent review that said a possible miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

The family wants the UK authorities to declassify documents that are said to allege that Iran used a Syria-based Palestinian proxy to build the bomb that downed flight 103.