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Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday postponed a trial in the US for a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, after new evidence on the 37-year-old case came to light three days ago.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday for the federal trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi in Washington. His trial will be the first in the US for the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, most of them Americans.
Lawyers acting for Al-Marimi said "newly discovered evidence" previously unknown to the defense and prosecutors from the US government emerged on Friday.
Al-Marimi has denied building the bomb that destroyed the Pan Am flight.
His lawyers told the court: "Constitutional and ethical obligations require the defense to investigate this development."
They said they met Al-Marimi on Sunday and he agreed that they should ask for the postponement.
US District Judge Dabney Friedrich has agreed that the start date should be set aside, underlining the potential importance of the new evidence.
She would have been extremely reluctant to allow an 11th hour postponement after months of preparation and marathon pre-trial legal battles.
For the relatives of those who died and Al-Marimi himself, this latest delay means a verdict might not come until next spring.
It is yet another stunning development in a saga that has witnessed countless twists and turns over nearly four decades.
Pan Am 103 was flying from Heathrow to New York when the bomb exploded in its forward hold, breaking the plane apart at 31,000 feet.
The blast killed all 259 passengers and crew members and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, where the wreckage destroyed an entire city block. Citizens of 21 countries were killed, including 190 Americans and 43 from the United Kingdom. The passengers included 35 Syracuse University students returning home from a semester abroad.
Nearly four decades later, the bombing remains the worst terror attack and mass murder in British history.
Al-Marimi has been in US custody since 2022 and was originally due to stand trial in May 2025.
That date was set aside following a joint request from the prosecution and defence, who cited the complexity of the case and Al-Marimi's ill health.
The trial was pencilled in for April this year but was called off again, after the defence asked for more time to prepare.
The Lockerbie bombing has been the subject of a joint Scottish-US investigation since December 1988.
Prosecutors from the Crown Office and detectives from Police Scotland were due to travel to Washington to attend the case, and Scottish witnesses were expected to be among the first to give evidence at the trial.
Laura Buchan, head of the Lockerbie investigation team at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: "I recognise that this adjournment will be disappointing for the families and for those who have followed this case over many years."
Kara Weipz, board president of the nonprofit Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said her organization had received no details about the new evidence that prompted the trial delay. Weipz’s brother Richard Monetti was among the Syracuse students killed.
She called the delay a shock and noted that some victims’ relatives were already packing to head to the trial.
“At the same time, for almost 38 years we’ve been seeking the truth of what happened,” Weipz said. “If that’s what this is, then that’s a good thing, and this delay is worth it. ... It’s important to hear all the facts.”
Prosecutors allege Al-Marimi and others carried out the bombing at the direction of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed during a 2011 civil war.
Two other Libyan intelligence agents were tried by a panel of Scottish judges on a former U.S. military base in the Netherlands in 2000. The tribunal convicted one official and acquitted the other, but the bombmaker’s possible identity remained a mystery for years.
Al-Marimi, 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.
Al-Marimi worked for the Libyan intelligence service from approximately 1973 to 2011, rising to the rank of colonel, according to prosecutors.
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