(FamilyConservationPAC.com) – According to Scottish and U.S. law enforcement sources, a Libyan man suspected of creating the bomb that crashed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people, is currently being held in jail in the United States.
He was arrested about two years after former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr initially revealed the U.S. had filed charges against him.
U.S. Arrests Lockerbie Bombing Suspect 34 Years After Deadly Scottish Plane Attack https://t.co/gMXJMBLdMg pic.twitter.com/40v8nIktud
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A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed the defendant was in American custody on Sunday. According to reports, Mas’ud will appear in federal court in Washington, DC.
The representative stated that more information about the hearing’s schedule would be released soon.
According to court documents, Mas’ud was a skilled bombmaker who joined the intelligence unit of the Libyan External Security Organization in the 1970s.
He participated in several missions outside of Libya, rising to the rank of colonel.
According to a military source, Mas’ud was flown out of the airport in the Libyan city of Misrata.
A Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) representative announced that the Lockerbie bombing victims’ relatives have been informed that the suspect is in American custody.
Mas’ud’s detention was initially reported by the BBC.
All 259 persons on board and 11 more on the ground were killed by the bomb. The Boeing 747 was traveling from London to New York City. This was the bloodiest militant attack to ever take place in Britain.
Over 840 square miles were devoted to the attack’s crime scene (2,175 square km).
Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were charged in the attack in 1991 together with two other Libyan intelligence agents.
Megrahi was found guilty of the bombing at a Scottish trial before a court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. He was given a life sentence in 2001. After being released, he passed away in 2012 at his Tripoli home from cancer.
Despite Fhimah’s complete acquittal, Scottish prosecutors have insisted that Megrahi did not act alone.
The United States unveiled criminal accusations against Mas’ud, a third conspirator who was allegedly involved, in 2020, saying that he has experience as a technical expert in the creation of explosive devices.
According to a sworn affidavit made by an FBI agent in support of the government’s criminal complaint, U.S. investigators discovered evidence indicating one of the potential perpetrators went by the name of “Abu Agela Masud” during the attack and were unable to track him down.
Years later, the FBI secured a copy of Mas’ud’s interview with a Libyan law enforcement official on September 12, 2012, while he was being held there.
According to the FBI agent’s account, during the questioning, Mas’ud “confessed to manufacturing the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 and to cooperating with Megrahi and Fhimah to execute the operation.”
Mas’ud further admitted to the interviewer that he had been a part of prior schemes of a similar nature and claimed that Libyan intelligence officials had ordered the bombing.
He also claimed former Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi “thanked him and other squad members for their successful strike on the United States.”
According to the agent who made the statement, the FBI confirmed Mas’ud’s confession due to its inquiry.
Politicians in Libya, divided between a parliament in the east of the country and a Government of National Unity in Tripoli, began fighting after Mas’ud was handed up for prosecution in the West.
Despite the lack of an extradition agreement, several eastern lawmakers charged Prime Minister Abdulhamd al-Dbeibah with serving Washington’s interests.
Hopefully this news will bring more closure to the family’s of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103.
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