Policemen look at the wreckage of the 747 Pan Am airliner that exploded and crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland
Credit: ROY LETKEY/AFP via Getty Images/ROY LETKEY/AFP via Getty Images
The suspect in the Lockerbie bombing set to face new US charges should stand trial not in America but in Scotland or the International Criminal Court, relatives of the terror attack’s victims have told The Telegraph.
Two family members of people who died in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the deadliest terror attack in modern British history, expressed concern that the suspect could be executed if put on trial in America.
The US Justice Department is expected to announce charges against Abu Agila Mas’ud, a Libyan believed to be held by authorities in Tripoli, at a press conference on Monday, the 32nd anniversary of the tragedy.
It would be the first public breakthrough in the case for many years. Investigators in America and Scotland have long been frustrated with the failure to bring more perpetrators of the attack which killed 270 to justice.
Pam Dix, whose brother Peter Dix was killed in the tragedy, told this newspaper: "I would rather see this prosecuted in British courts.
“I would feel more comfortable about the trial being in Britain partly because the whole process has been through the British justice system up until now.
“Mas’ud could face the death sentence in the US and on principle it isn’t right to execute criminals, therefore it should not be in America."
Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was murdered, said: "If the Americans have any evidence to bring a prosecution I would rather it was in the International Criminal Court.
“I would not want to see this in an American court. Certainly the death penalty rules out America as a venue."
One major complication once charges are announced will be the extradition of Mr Mas’ud.
It is understood that given it is easier to extradite suspects from Libya to Britain than America, given current arrangements, holding a trial in Scotland remains a possibility.
Lockerbie, the town in southern Scotland, was where the plane crashed after the explosion on board. A majority of those killed were American.
Peter Millett, Britain’s former ambassador to Tripoli, said he thought the Libyan government would probably be willing in principle to hand Mr Mas’ud over to the US for trial, assuming extradition arrangements could be made.
He pointed out that last year, the Libyan authorities permitted the extradition to Britain of Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester bomber Salman Abedi.
"The Libyan government was upset by the Manchester bombing and wanted to do what they could to help, and in the same way, I don’t think they want to defend anyone who carried out a bombing under Gaddafi’s orders," he told The Telegraph.
Mr Mas’ud would be the third suspect charged. Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is the only person ever convicted over the attack. Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, a second suspect, was acquitted.
Megrahi, a Libyan, was convicted by Scottish judges in 2001. He was sentenced to life in prison but was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The move infuriated the US government at the time and victims’ families. Despite an assessment that he had just months left before his death he lived until 2012.
The scene of devastation caused by the explosion of a 747 Pan Am Jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988
Credit: ROY LETKEY / AFP
A panel of five appeal judges in Edinburgh is currently deliberating whether to acquit Megrahi after the conclusion of the third appeal against his conviction last month.
Aamer Anwar, a lawyer speaking for the Megrahi family, claimed the decision by the US Justice Department was designed to sway the Scottish court on that case.
Mr Anwar said: “How ‘convenient’ that this should happen just as the decision of the Megrahi miscarriage of justice appeal in the Scottish courts is awaited."
The case against Mr Mas’ud arose mainly from a lengthy investigation by US journalist Ken Dornstein, whose brother David was among those killed on the flight.
Mr Dornstein found out that Mr Mas’ud had also been linked to the April 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub used by US soldiers, which led to retaliatory US air-raids on Tripoli.
In the wake of Mr Dornstein revealing his findings in 2015 — which US officials also took an interest in — Scottish prosecutors said they wanted to interview two new suspects in the case.
While they were not named officially, they were reported at the time to be Abdullah Senussi, Gaddafi’s former spy chief, and Mr Mas’ud, who is also sometimes named as Mohammed Abouajela Masud.
Mr Mas’ud was also named in the 1999 indictment against Megrahi, but was not a central figure in the trial and never faced charges.
It is not known how Mr Mas’ud will plead should charges be announced as expected on Monday.
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