US authorities announced they had arrested former intelligence officer Abu Agila Mohammad Mas ud Kheir Al-Marimi on Sunday and on Monday he was charged with an act of international terrorism
More than three decades after a bomb brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone aboard, a former Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb appeared Monday in federal court, charged with an act of international terrorism.
Mas’ud, who appeared to walk with a limp, is one of three people whom U.S. and British law enforcement officials have alleged were involved with the bombing.
The first image of the suspected Lockerbie bombmaker in US custody has emerged, as families of the 207 victims killed in the 1988 attack over Scotland praised his arrest as a step toward justice.
Abu Agila Masud is said to have admitted his role to Libyan officials in 2012
The US on Monday unsealed criminal charges against Masud over the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people
Masud is said to have told investigators how he built the bomb used in the attack
An FBI affidavit unsealed Monday says Masud told Libyan law enforcement that he flew to Malta to meet Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah
He then handed Fhimah a medium-sized Samsonite suitcase containing a bomb
The suspected Lockerbie bombmaker is said to have told investigators how he avoided detection by airport scanners by positioning his explosive device near metal in a suitcase that was timed to go off 11 hours later.