New evidence prompts trial delay for Libyan charged in 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103

A federal judge has postponed a trial in the US of a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, citing the discovery of new evidence that defence attorneys want to examine in the nearly 40-year-old case. Jury selection was scheduled to begin on Wednesday for the federal trial of Abu Agila Mohammd Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi in Washington. His trial will be the first in the US for the 21 December 1988 bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland, which killed 270 people.

US District Judge Dabney Friedrich’s order didn’t specify the nature of the newly discovered evidence. Al-Marimi’s lawyers say prosecutors disclosed the new evidence to them on Saturday and added that their “constitutional and ethical obligations require the defence to investigate this development.” Defence attorney Laura Koenig, an assistant federal public defender, declined to elaborate in response to press inquiries. The judge scheduled a 1 September hearing in Washington to discuss the status of the case.

Friedrich's brief order cited the complex nature of the case, the newly discovered evidence and “the need for the defence to determine how best to defend this case” as reasons to postpone the trial. Al-Marimi is charged in the US with making the bomb that downed the airplane. Flight 103 was 9.45 kilometres over Lockerbie when a bomb in the plane’s forward cargo area exploded 38 minutes after take-off 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 in Lockerbie, where the wreckage destroyed an entire block.

Citizens of 21 countries were killed, including 190 Americans and 43 from the United Kingdom. The passengers included 35 Syracuse University students returning home from a semester abroad. Kara Weipz, board president of the nonprofit Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said her organisation had received no details about the new evidence that prompted the trial delay.

Weipz’s brother Richard Monetti was among the Syracuse students killed. She called the delay a shock and noted that some victims' relatives were already packing to head to the trial. It's important to hear all the facts.” Prosecutors allege Al-Marimi and others carried out the bombing at the direction of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was ousted and killed during a 2011 civil war.