Abou Agila Mohammad Massoud is suspected of having assembled and programmed the bomb that exploded on an aircraft in 1988 above Scotland, killing 270 people.
MO12345LEMOND With AFP
Thirty-four years later, the Lockerbie attack is not a finished story. A Libyan suspected of having assembled and programmed the bomb that exploded on an airplane over Scotland in December 1988, killing 270 people, was placed in detention in the United States, the US authorities said on Sunday, December 11 .
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice has confirmed, in an email transmitted to the France-Presse agency (AFP), the arrest and the detention of Abu Agila Mohammad Massoud. “He must appear before a court in the District of Columbia”, that is to say in Washington, said the spokesman without specifying the date, no more than the circumstances surrounding Mr. Massoud’s presentation to the American authorities.
Only one convicted to date
“The families of the victims of the Lockerbie attack learned that the suspect Abou Agila Mohammad Massoud is in detention in the United States,” the Scottish prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “The Scottish prosecutor’s office and the police, in coordination with the American government and American colleagues, will continue to continue this investigation with the sole purpose of conducting justice those who acted alongside al-Megrahi”, alone condemned in this business, he added.
The attack had targeted a transatlantic flight connecting London to New York. The aircraft, a PAN AM Boeing 747, exploded on December 21, 1988 above the Scottish village in Lockerbie, killing 259 passengers and crew members and 11 people on the ground. Only one person was convicted of this attack: the Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, who died in 2012. He had always claimed his innocence. Last year, Scottish justice rejected the appeal formed by the family of al-Megrahi, believing that there “had no miscarriage of judicial”.
In December 2020, the American justice had announced to prosecute Abou Agila Mohammad Massoud, former member of the intelligence services of Muammar Gaddafi and at the time held in Libya. The Libyan dictator regime had officially recognized in 2003 its responsibility in the attack and paid $ 2.7 billion in compensation to the families of the victims.