A man is due to appear in court over the Lockerbie attack. Abu Agila Masud is suspected of having built the bomb that killed 270 people.
Munich – 34 years after the Lockerbie attack, the terrorist attack will probably be a case for the judiciary again. The families of the victims have been informed by Scottish prosecutors that a Libyan man has been taken into custody. This is reported by the BBC and the British news agency PA. The arrested man is said to have built the bomb that destroyed the Pan American World Airways plane and caused the crash that killed 270 people – including four Germans.
Two years ago, the United States – 190 of the victims came from the United States – announced charges against Abu Agila Masud, who is said to have played a key role in the attack, which has never been fully clarified. There had been reports last month that the suspect had been kidnapped by a militia group in Libya. Even then, rumors had arisen that he would have to answer to a court in the USA.
A spokesman for the US Department of Justice told Reuters that Masud will appear before a federal court for the first time. The suspect is a former high-ranking member of the Libyan secret service.
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The background to the most devastating attack on British soil has never been fully elucidated. So far, only Abdel Baset al-Megrahi has been held accountable. The former Libyan secret service officer was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 by a Scottish court in the Netherlands – where he lived under arrest – for mass murder, but was released in August 2009 because of severe prostate cancer. In 2012 he died.
Megrahi had always maintained his innocence. He appealed the sentence twice, but one was unsuccessful while the second was abandoned. His fellow countryman Lamin Chalifah Fhimah, who was also accused, was acquitted.
According to the spokesman for the Scottish public prosecutor’s office, work is now being done together with the police, the British government and US lawyers to bring Masud to justice. Further details were not initially known. (mg)
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