WASHINGTON — A Libyan intelligence operative charged within the 1988 bombing of an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, was arrested by the F.B.I. and being extradited to america to face prosecution for one of many deadliest terrorist assaults in American historical past, officers mentioned on Sunday.
The arrest of the operative, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud, was the end result of a decades-long effort by the Justice Division to prosecute him. In 2020, Legal professional Common William P. Barr introduced legal expenses in opposition to Mr. Mas’ud, accusing him of building the explosive device used within the bombing, which killed 270 passengers, together with 190 People.
Mr. Mas’ud faces two legal counts, together with destruction of an plane leading to dying. He was being held at a Libyan jail for unrelated crimes when the Justice Division unsealed the fees in opposition to him two years in the past. It’s unclear how the U.S. authorities negotiated the extradition of Mr. Mas’ud.
After Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Libya’s chief, was ousted from energy, Mr. Mas’ud confessed to the bombing in 2012, telling a Libyan legislation enforcement official that he was behind the assault. As soon as investigators realized in regards to the confession in 2017, they interviewed the Libyan official who had elicited it, resulting in expenses.
Despite the fact that extradition would permit Mr. Mas’ud to face trial, authorized consultants have expressed doubts about whether or not his confession, obtained in jail in war-torn Libya, can be admissible as proof.
Mr. Mas’ud, who was born in Tunisia however has Libyan citizenship, was the third particular person charged within the bombing. Two others, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, had been charged in 1991, however American efforts to prosecute them ran aground when Libya declined to ship them to america or Britain to face trial.
As an alternative, the Libyan authorities agreed to a trial within the Netherlands below Scottish legislation. Mr. Fhimah was acquitted and Mr. al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life in jail.
In 2009, Scottish officers launched Mr. al-Megrahi as a result of he had prostate most cancers, regardless of the strenuous objections of the households of the victims and of American officers, together with President Barack Obama. Mr. al-Megrahi died in 2012; his household posthumously appealed his conviction in Scotland, however last year a panel of judges refused to overturn it.
Prosecutors say that Mr. Mas’ud performed a key position within the bombing, touring to Malta and delivering the suitcase that contained the bomb used within the assault. In Malta, Mr. Megrahi and Mr. Fhimah instructed Mr Mas’ud to set the timer on the system so it might blow up whereas the aircraft was within the air the following day, prosecutors mentioned.
On the morning of Dec. 21, 1998, Mr. Megrahi and Mr. Fhimah met Mr. Mas’ud on the airport in Malta, the place he turned over the suitcase. Prosecutors mentioned Mr. Fhimah put the suitcase on a conveyor belt, in the end ending up on Pan Am Flight 103.
Mr. Mas’ud’s title surfaced twice in 1988, even earlier than the bombing passed off. In October, a Libyan defector instructed the C.I.A. he had seen Mr. Mas’ud on the Malta airport with Mr. Megrahi, saying the pair had handed by means of on a terrorist operation. Malta served as a major launching level for Libya to provoke such assaults, the informant instructed the company. That December, the day earlier than the Pan Am bombing, the informant instructed the C.I.A. that the pair had once more handed by means of Malta. Practically one other 12 months handed earlier than the company requested the informant in regards to the bombing.
However investigators by no means pursued Mr. Mas’ud in earnest till Mr. Megrahi’s trial years later, just for the Libyans to insist that Mr. Mas’ud didn’t exist. Mr. Megrahi additionally claimed he didn’t know Mr. Mas’ud.
