Trial Postponed Over New Evidence

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday postponed the trial of a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, citing newly discovered evidence that defense attorneys need time to examine.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich’s order did not specify the nature of the new evidence. Jury selection had been scheduled to begin Wednesday for Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, who faces charges in the first U.S. trial related to the Dec. 21, 1988, attack.

Al-Marimi’s lawyers said prosecutors disclosed the new evidence on Saturday and that their “constitutional and ethical obligations require the defense to investigate this development.” Defense attorney Laura Koenig, an assistant federal public defender, declined to elaborate. Judge Friedrich scheduled a Sept. 1 hearing to discuss the status of the case, citing its complexity and “the need for the defense to determine how best to defend this case.”

The 1988 Bombing

Flight 103 was at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, when a bomb in the forward cargo area exploded 38 minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport. The flight was bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The blast killed all 259 passengers and crew members and 11 people on the ground, where wreckage destroyed an entire city block. Citizens of 21 countries died, including 190 Americans and 43 from the United Kingdom; 35 of the victims were Syracuse University students returning from a semester abroad.

Charges and Allegations

Al-Marimi is charged with making the bomb that downed the plane, killing 270 people. Prosecutors allege he and others carried out the bombing at the direction of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed in 2011. Al-Marimi, who is in his mid-70s, faces two counts of destruction of aircraft, each carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison. An earlier trial of two other Libyan intelligence agents by Scottish judges in 2000 resulted in one conviction and one acquittal.

Reaction from Victims’ Families

Kara Weipz, board president of the nonprofit Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said her brother was among those killed. “At the same time, for almost 38 years we’ve been seeking the truth,” Weipz said, adding that the delay, while disappointing, reflects the need for a thorough process.