A Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie has lost his legal bid to have the case against him dismissed. Abu Agila Masud had argued that he was unlawfully removed from Libya to face trial in the United States, describing his 2022 extradition as a "cloak and dagger operation conducted in the dead of night."
According to the BBC, a US district court judge ruled that the circumstances of his removal should not prevent the trial from proceeding in Washington next year. The trial is scheduled to begin in January.
Judge Cites Legal Doctrine
Trial judge Dabney Friedrich referred to a long-standing American legal doctrine that states a court's authority to hold a trial is not impaired if the suspect was forcefully abducted. Judge Friedrich said: "This rule rests on the principle that due process of law is satisfied when one present in court is convicted of a crime after a fair trial and in accordance with constitutional procedural safeguards. Put differently, there's nothing in the Constitution that requires a court to permit a guilty person rightfully convicted to escape justice because he was brought to trial against his will."
The judge noted two exceptions to this doctrine. The first would apply if Masud had been brought before the court through the US government's "deliberate, unnecessary and unreasonable invasion" of his constitutional rights. For this exception to be triggered, the challenged conduct had to be carried out by, or at the direction of, US officials. Judge Friedrich said Masud's allegations "at best suggest that US government officials exerted pressure on Libyan officials to facilitate a rendition, not that US government officials directed or controlled the challenged conduct."
Extradition Agreement Exception
The second exception would apply only if the US government had violated an extradition agreement, which was the only way a suspect could be transferred between the two countries. The judge said the US government had invoked two conventions to secure Masud's appearance in a US court.
She said: "Neither the Montreal Convention nor the Terrorists Bombing Convention provides that it is the only way by which one country may gain custody of a national of another country for the purposes of prosecution. Accordingly, Libya was free to transfer Mr Masud to the United States using any method it chose."
Charges and Background
Masud is charged with making a bomb that blew up a plane over Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and crew and 11 people on the ground when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded above the Scottish town in 1988. He denies all charges. The plane was 40 minutes into its flight from London to New York. According to the FBI, Masud admitted to building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103, a claim he later said was false and made under duress.
The only previous criminal trial related to the Lockerbie bombing took place between May 2000 and January 2001, when three Scottish judges convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdulbasset al-Megrahi of playing a key role in the plot. Megrahi was jailed for life but released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died three years later at home in Tripoli.
