Home affairs correspondent, BBC Scotland
ReutersThe trial of a Libyan suspect in the Lockerbie bombing, which was due to start in the United States in May, could be postponed following a request from the prosecution and defence.
Abu Agila Masud Al-Marimi has been accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, causing the deaths of 270 people.
His trial was due to get under way in Washington on 12 May but the US government and the defence have asked for it to be called off meantime.
Referred to as Masud by Scottish and American investigators, the Libyan is alleged to have confessed to making the device which exploded in the airliner’s hold as it flew from London to New York.
A motion filed by government prosecutors asked for the scheduled start date to be set aside due to Masud’s ill health and the complexity of the case.
The Libyan is in his seventies and has been receiving treatment for what’s understood to be a non-life threatening health condition.
In December the District Court of the District of Columbia was told that Masud’s health condition would cause a delay of 90-120 days.
Prosecutors say that based on “additional information,” it appear there will be “additional delay.”
The lawyers have asked for extra time to prepare a revised pretrial schedule and set a new starting date.
The US government is also continuing the process of providing the defence with copies of the material and evidence it plans to use at the trial.
If the trial judge grants the request, a status hearing on the case will be held next month.
AFPThe FBI says Masud was a Libyan intelligence agent who acted alongside Abdelbasset Al-Megrahi, his fellow countryman who was convicted of murdering the 270 victims after standing trial at a Scottish court in the Netherlands more than two decades ago.
The bomb was concealed in a radio cassette player in a Samsonite suitcase and then smuggled on board a flight from Malta on the morning of 21 December 1988.
The unaccompanied bag was transferred onto a Pan Am feeder flight from Frankfurt to London, where it was loaded onto Pan Am 103.
Masud is said to have told a Libyan law enforcement official that the country’s dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi later thanked him for carrying out “a great national duty against the Americans”.
The confession is alleged to have been made in 2012 while Masud was in custody in Libya following the uprising against Gaddafi’s regime.
Not guilty plea
The grandfather was removed from his home in Tripoli by a militia group in November 2022 and handed over to the US authorities in circumstances which have yet to be fully explained.
Faced with a backlash from opposition politicians, the prime minister of Libya’s internationally backed Government of National Unity Abdul Hami Dbeibeh said they had been complying with a request issued through Interpol.
Masud pleaded not guilty to the charges after appearing in court in Washington in December 2022.
The Lockerbie bombing has been the subject of renewed public attention in the run-up to Masud’s trial.
A Sky TV drama starring Colin Firth as the father of one of the British victims attracted controversy, and a BBC/Netflix production is to be aired later this year.
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