US judge delays Lockerbie bombing trial over new evidence

A US federal judge has postponed the trial of a Libyan man accused of orchestrating the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988, which claimed 270 lives. Jury selection for the trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Masud was set to commence the following day, but Judge Dabney Friedrich cited the discovery of new evidence and evidence from other countries as the reason for the delay.

No new trial date has been established, but a court hearing is scheduled for September 1 to address the case's progress. Masud, who allegedly served as an intelligence operative for Muammar Gaddafi's regime from 1973 to 2011, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the aircraft destruction resulting in deaths. If found guilty, he could face a prison sentence of life.

Pan Am Flight 103, en route to New York, was destroyed 38 minutes after takeoff from London, causing the main fuselage to crash in the Scottish town of Lockerbie and scattering debris across a wide area. The bombing, the deadliest terror attack on British soil, resulted in the deaths of all 259 individuals on board, including 190 Americans, and 11 people on the ground.

Masud has been held in US custody since 2022, following his extradition from Libya. To date, only one individual has been convicted for the bombing. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, served seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001 before dying in Libya in 2012, still claiming his innocence.