NEARLY 35 years after 270 people, including 190 Americans, died in the mid-air bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Abu Agila Masud was said to be the “third conspirator” behind the horrific act in 1988.
Who is Abu Agila Masud?
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud is a former intelligence officer, who worked from 1973 to 2011 for the intelligence agencies of murdered former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
He also reportedly had a “technical expert in building explosive devices.”
In 1988, he was allegedly instructed to fly to Malta with a “prepared suitcase,” where he was instructed by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, to “set the timer on the device for the following morning.”
What has Abu Agila Masud been accused of?
Abu Agila Masud was taken into custody on Sunday, December 11, 2022, after he became the primary suspect in the deadliest terror attack in the UK.
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He has been accused of building the bomb which downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1998.
He is charged with two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death and a count of destruction of a vehicle resulting in death.
The Libyan pleaded not guilty to all three in a federal court in Washington.
It was reported that in a confession extracted more than 10 years ago, while he was in custody in Libya on unrelated charges, he admitted to setting the timer for the bomb.
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He reportedly said the country’s longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi “thanked him and other members of the team for their successful attack on the United States.”
Each of the charges Abu Agila faces are punishable by a sentence of up to life imprisonment, the death penalty or a fine of up to $250,000 (£206,000).
However, a previous hearing in December (2022) heard that Abu Agila would not face the death penalty because the bombing occurred before the specific charges he faced carried a possible penalty of capital punishment.
As of November 2023, Abdul Basset al Megrahi is the only person to be convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
What happened on Pan Am Flight 103?
On December 21, 1988, a bomb planted aboard Pam Am Flight 103 exploded less than half an hour after the jet departed Heathrow Airport, bound for New York.
The attack destroyed the jet, which was carrying citizens of 21 countries.
Among the victims were 190 Americans – including 35 students from Syracuse University in upstate New York who were flying home after a semester abroad.
Just after 7pm local time (2pm ET) a large bomb exploded as the plane crossed over the border between England and Scotland.
The plane turned into 300 tons of wreckage, with most of the debris landing in the town of Lockerbie.
Investigators said the bomb was in a Samsonite suitcase which was taken on board via a feeder flight from the Mediterranean island nation of Malta.
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All 243 passengers and 16 crew were killed along with 11 residents on the ground.
To this day, the bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack ever carried out on British soil.
