US Judge Postpones Lockerbie Bombing Trial After New Evidence Emerges

A US federal judge postponed the trial of a Libyan man accused in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, citing newly discovered evidence.

Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed to set aside the start date for jury selection, which was scheduled for Wednesday in Washington DC. Lawyers for Abu Agila Mohammad Kheir Al-Marimi stated that newly discovered evidence emerged on Friday, August 21, previously unknown to both the defense and US government prosecutors. A new start date for the trial has been set for January next year, with a court hearing scheduled for September 1 to discuss the case's status.

Mr. Al-Marimi is charged in the US with making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people. He has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the destruction of an aircraft resulting in death. The flight was traveling from London Heathrow to New York when the bomb exploded in its forward hold 38 minutes after takeoff, breaking the plane apart at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland.

All 259 passengers and crew on board died, and 11 people on the ground were killed when wreckage fell on their homes. Of the victims, 190 were American and 43 were from the United Kingdom. Prosecutors allege Mr. Al-Marimi and others carried out the bombing at the direction of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. This marks the third postponement for the trial, which is set to be the first US trial over the bombing.

Mr. Al-Marimi has been in US custody since December 2022, following his extradition from Libya. Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was the only person previously convicted for the bombing, serving seven years in a Scottish prison after his 2001 conviction before dying in Libya in 2012 while maintaining his innocence.