Lawyers ask for year-long delay to Lockerbie bombing trial

The trial of a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed an American airliner over Lockerbie could be delayed until spring next year.

The case against Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, was due to begin in Washington this month, but was delayed due to his poor health and to give the defence more time to prepare.

In a joint submission lodged with the court, lawyers for the prosecution and defence are now "expecting to request" a trial date of late April 2026. The proposed delay would have to be approved by a judge.

Masud has denied priming the explosive device which brought down Pan Am flight 103 on 21 December 1988, killing 270 people.

The explosion killed 259 passengers and crew and a further 11 people in the Dumfries and Galloway town when wreckage of the Boeing 747 fell on their homes.

It remains the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United Kingdom.

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

He has been receiving treatment for a non-life threatening medical condition.

In a joint status report to the US district court for the District of Columbia, both parties referred to the "complex, international nature" of evidence in the case, adding that a pre-trial schedule would be "atypical".

Lawyers also requested an early deadline for motions to "suppress the defendant's statement," presumed to be an alleged confession Masud made while in jail in Libya in 2012.

The claim, which is said to be of "importance to the [US] government's case," alleges that Masud admitted working for the Libyan intelligence service and confessed to building the device which brought down the aircraft.

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

Megrahi was convicted of murdering the 270 victims and died in Tripoli in 2012 after being freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government.

Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, his co-accused in the trial at the Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands, was found not guilty.

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

He was charged five years later by then-US attorney general William Barr with the destruction of an aircraft resulting in death.

Masud was taken into US custody in 2022 after being removed from his home by an armed militia.

The latest hearing in the case is due to take place in Washington on Thursday.