Lockerbie suspect's arraignment addresses 34 years of 'miscarriage of justice'
Victoria Cummock, the widow of a passenger aboard Pan Am flight 103, reacts to the 1988 Lockerbie bombing suspect being taken into U.S. custody on 'Your World.'
The Libyan intelligence operative arrested last month for allegedly building the bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 above Lockerbie, Scotland, more than 34 years ago was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Washington, D.C., but family members expressed that they've had trouble securing a defense attorney, according to a report.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi's arraignment was, therefore, pushed back to Feb. 8.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya formally appointed federal public defender Whitney Minter to represent him Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Minter told the judge that Mas'ud's family was unable to retain a defense lawyer on their own, according to the outlet. The public defender requested additional time to review the indictment with Mas'ud before entering a plea or responding to the government's request to keep him jailed before trial.
The Dec. 21, 1988, terrorist attack killed 270 people, including 190 Americans, dozens of whom were college students flying back to New York City in time for Christmas after studying abroad. On Dec. 12, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of Mas'ud. The now-71-year-old from Tunisia and Libya is the first suspect to face charges in the U.S. in connection to the Lockerbie attack following a three-decade-long investigation by Scottish and American law enforcement.
LOCKERBIE BOMBING SUSPECT IN CUSTODY
Officials inspect the wreckage of Pan Am flight 103 December 21, 1988, in Lockerbie, Scotland. (Georges De Keerle/Getty Images)
Upadhyaya also set a Feb. 23 date for a detention hearing. According to Reuters, Minter told the court that Mas'ud has no substantial assets and has not been employed for a decade. The alleged bombmaker makes mortgage payments on a home in Libya, and his children help cover his living and medical expenses, Minter added.
Just 38 minutes after takeoff from London-Heathrow while in route to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, a bomb in the forward cargo area of the Boeing 747 exploded at 31,000 feet above Lockerbie, Scotland, destroying the aircraft almost instantaneously, according to the Justice Department.
All 259 people aboard died, and 11 others were killed on the ground.
This image provided by the Alexandria, Va., Sheriff's Office shows Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, who is in custody at the Alexandria Adult Detention Center, Dec. 12, 2022 in Alexandria, Va. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office via AP)
Among the 190 Americans lost were 35 Syracuse University students returning home to the United States for the holidays after a semester studying abroad.
Of the 43 victims from the United Kingdom, eleven residents of Lockerbie perished on the ground as fiery debris from the falling aircraft destroyed an entire city block of homes.
Paul Hudson, whose daughter Melina was one of the victims in the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie bombing, holds up a banner of pictures of additional victims outside the federal court before the trial for a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that exploded the plane on December 12, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
In what was considered the largest international terrorist attack in the United States and the United Kingdom at the time, citizens from Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Trinidad and Tobago were also among those killed.
In 1991, two suspects -- Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi (Megrahi) and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah (Fhimah) – were charged in both the U.S. and U.K. in connection to the Lockerbie bombing.
Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband Michael Bernstein was killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie bombing, speaks with reporters outside the federal court before after the trial proceedings for a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that exploded the plane on December 12, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
They were tried in a Scottish court sitting in The Netherlands. Fhimah was acquitted. Despite Megrahi being found guilty in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison, he was later released by Scottish authorities in 2009 because he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died at home in Tripoli in 2012, Reuters reported.
Mas’ud was charged through a December 2020 criminal complaint but wasn’t indicted until November 2022.
Families of victims of Pan Am 103 which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist bomb, arrive at JFK Airport, New York, New York, December 21, 1988. (Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images)
The complaint alleges that from approximately 1973 to 2011, Mas’ud worked for the External Security Organization (ESO), the Libyan intelligence service which conducted acts of terrorism against other nations, in various capacities including as a technical expert in building explosive devices. In the winter of 1988, Mas’ud allegedly was directed by a Libyan intelligence official to fly to Malta with a prepared suitcase. There he was met by Megrahi and Fhimah at the airport, the complaint says.
Picture dated December 21, 1988 of a grieving woman at JFK airport in New-York after learning the explosion of the 747 Pan Am Boeing over Lockerbie killing all 259 passengers, with her son among them. (MARIA BASTONE/AFP via Getty Images)
Several days later, Megrahi and Fhimah instructed Mas’ud to set the timer on the device in the suitcase for the following morning, so that the explosion would occur exactly eleven hours later. Megrahi and Fhimah were both at the airport on the morning of Dec. 21, 1988, and Mas’ud handed the suitcase to Fhimah after Fhimah gave him a signal to do so, the complaint says. Fhimah allegedly then placed the suitcase on the conveyor belt. Subsequently, Mas’ud boarded a Libyan flight to Tripoli.
Some of the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 after it crashed onto the town of Lockerbie in Scotland, December 22, 1988. (Tom Stoddart/Getty Images)
Days after returning to Libya, Mas’ud and Megrahi met with a senior Libyan intelligence official, who thanked them, the complaint says. Three months later, Mas’ud and Fhimah allegedly met with then-Libyan leader Muamar Qaddafi, who thanked them for carrying out a great national duty against the Americans, and Qaddafi added that the operation was a "total success."
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If convicted, Mas’ud faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Reuters reported that prosecutors don’t plan on seeking the death penalty because it was not legally available at the time of the alleged crime.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
