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A United States judge has postponed the trial of the man accused of building the bomb used in the 1988 Lockerbie attack.
Jury selection in the trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi had been scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
However, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich delayed the proceedings after the defence found new evidence that required further examination. The judge said the new evidence, including material located in other countries, meant defence lawyers needed more time to determine how to proceed.
Friedrich did not set a new trial date but scheduled a hearing for September 1 to discuss the next steps.
Mas’ud, a former Libyan intelligence operative now in his mid-70s, has pleaded not guilty to two charges linked to the bombing and faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board, including 190 Americans, and 11 people on the ground. The bombing killed 270 people in total and became one of the deadliest attacks in British history.
US prosecutors allege that Mas’ud built the time-delayed bomb, which was placed inside a suitcase and loaded onto the aircraft. The suitcase was initially placed on a flight from Malta before being transferred to Pan Am Flight 103 at London Heathrow Airport. Mas’ud was arrested in Libya and brought to the United States in 2022 to face trial.
Prosecutors have relied partly on an alleged confession he made to a Libyan police officer in 2012. However, his lawyers have challenged the confession’s credibility and other evidence.
Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi’s government accepted responsibility for the bombing in 2003, years after the attack. Mas’ud has continued to deny involvement in the bombing.
The case has faced years of legal delays, with prosecutors and defence lawyers dealing with evidence gathered across Libya, Britain and other countries.
