A US judge has ruled that a copy of an alleged confession by the Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie can be used at his trial. The defence team for Abu Agila Masud had sought to exclude the statement, taken in Libya by a police officer known as Jamal, on the grounds that it was not the original document.
Judge denies defence motion
Judge Dabney Friedrich denied the motion on Thursday, meaning the copy can be admitted as evidence. The United States District Court in the District of Columbia in Washington heard that prosecutors had tried to obtain the original statement in Libya but had been unable to do so, and that it was “beyond reach” of the judicial process.
Masud has claimed he was forced into making a false confession during his detention in 2012, and his lawyers have challenged the statement. Dressed in a green prison jumpsuit, the accused appeared in court on Thursday and listened to proceedings through an interpreter.
Trial date set
Masud's trial over the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history is due to start on January 19. It had originally been scheduled for August but was postponed just days before jury selection was set to begin, after the disclosure of new evidence that defence lawyers wanted to examine. The delay caused concern among victims' representatives given the age of many bereaved relatives. The nature of the fresh material has not been revealed, although a recent court hearing was told it involved one new witness.
Masud, now in his mid-70s, is charged with two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
Background to the bombing
Masud, who was extradited from Libya to the US in 2022, has denied the charges. All 259 passengers and crew and 11 people on the ground were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded 31,000ft above Lockerbie 38 minutes into its flight from London to New York in 1988.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only person convicted in connection with the bombing, after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting at a special court in the Hague in 2001. He was sent to serve his prison sentence in Scotland but was controversially granted compassionate release in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, returning home to Libya where he died in 2012. His fellow Libyan co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, who was cleared at the time of involvement in the atrocity, was recently reported to have died. Scottish prosecutors have always maintained that Megrahi acted with others in carrying out the attack.
