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A suspect has been taken into custody and charged in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people including 35 students studying abroad through Syracuse Unviersity, BBC Scotland reported Sunday morning.

In December 202o, the U.S. charged Libyan intelligence operative Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi for his alleged role in the bombing, according to a memo from then-U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr. The Department of Justice then accused Mas’ud of building the explosive device detonated onboard Pan Am Flight 103. Mas’ud is now in custody two years after the initial charges were filed.

“I hope that the families of the lost will find some comfort in the charges filed today,” Barr said in a December 2020 press conference. “The alleged facts underlying these charges fill important gaps in the historical record and help complete the account of how the bombing was executed and who was responsible. Finding the truth is the first step toward achieving justice.”

Mas’ud is expected to make his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a DOJ spokesperson told Reuters. As of Sunday, there is no specific date set for Mas’ud’s court appearance.

Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service confirmed in a statement to BBC Scotland that it notified the families of the 11 people killed on the ground when Pan Am Flight 103 crashed in the town of Lockerbie of Mas’ud’s arrest.

“Scottish prosecutors and police, working with UK Government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with Al Megrahi to justice,” the Scottish Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said in the statement.

Of the 259 people on Flight 103 who died in the air, 35 were students traveling home after a semester in London with SU’s Study Abroad program on the JFK-bound flight. SU celebrated its 32nd Remembrance Week in October ahead of the 34th anniversary of the Dec. 21, 1988 Pan Am Flight disaster. Two Lockerbie Scholars join SU’s 35 Remembrance Scholars each year to honor the students and people from Lockerbie who died in the attack.

In 2001, Libyan Arab Airlines Chief of Security Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who died in 2012, had been the only individual to be convicted for playing a role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison but the Scottish government released him in 2009 after he was diagnosed with cancer.

The Lockerbie bombing remains the deadliest attack to take place on British soil and the second-highest American death toll in a terrorist attack after 9/11.

Published on December 11, 2022 at 1:05 pm

Contact Dominic: dcchiapp@syr.edu | @DominicChiappo2