Lawyers ask for year-long lengthen to Lockerbie bombing trial

The trial of a Libyan guy accused of constructing the bomb that destroyed an American airliner over Lockerbie may well be not on time till spring subsequent 12 months.

The case towards Abu Agila Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, referred to as Masud, used to be because of start in Washington this month, however used to be not on time because of his deficient well being and to provide the defence extra time to organize.

In a joint submission lodged with the court docket, legal professionals for the prosecution and defence are actually “expecting to request” a tribulation date of past due April 2026. The proposed lengthen would must be licensed through a pass judgement on.

Masud has denied priming the explosive instrument which introduced down Pan Am flight 103 on 21 December 1988, killing 270 folks.

The explosion killed 259 passengers and staff and an extra 11 folks within the Dumfries and Galloway the city when wreckage of the Boeing 747 fell on their properties.

It stays the deadliest terror assault within the historical past of the United Kingdom.

Masud, who’s in his early 70s, is described as a joint citizen of Libya and Tunisia.

He has been receiving remedy for a non-life threatening clinical situation.

In a joint standing report back to the USA district court docket for the District of Columbia, each events referred to the “complex, international nature” of proof within the case, including {that a} pre-trial time table could be “atypical”.

Lawyers additionally asked an early cut-off date for motions to “suppress the defendant’s statement,” presumed to be an alleged confession Masud made whilst in prison in Libya in 2012.

The declare, which is alleged to be of “importance to the [US] government’s case,” alleges that Masud admitted operating for the Libyan intelligence carrier and confessed to development the instrument which introduced down the airplane.

It could also be alleged he named two accomplices, Abdelbasset Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah.

Megrahi used to be convicted of murdering the 270 sufferers and died in Tripoli in 2012 after being freed on compassionate grounds through the Scottish govt.

Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, his co-accused within the trial on the Scottish court docket sitting within the Netherlands, used to be discovered no longer in charge.

Scottish and US prosecutors first named Masud as a suspect within the case in 2015 following the cave in of the Gaddafi regime in Libya.

He used to be charged 5 years later through then-US legal professional common William Barr with the destruction of an airplane leading to dying.

Masud used to be taken into US custody in 2022 after being got rid of from his house through an armed military.

The newest listening to within the case is because of happen in Washington on Thursday.