Aug. 25 (UPI) — New evidence caused the trial of a Libyan man charged with building the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to be postponed for a third time in Federal Court in Washington.
U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Dabney Friedrich postponed the trial of Lybian Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi Monday, a day before jury selection was set to begin, after his defense team said new evidence had emerged that required investigation on “constitutional and ethical” grounds.
The BBC said it had information that a new date for the trial has been set for January, more than 20 months after Al-Marimi was originally due to stand trial.
The first postponement was due to ill health and then a second start date in April was pushed back after his lawyers requested more time to prepare their defense.
Al-Marimi denies involvement in the December 1988 bombing of the London to New York flight which killed all 259 p***engers and crew on board, most of them Americans, and another 11 people on the ground.
THe U.S. Justice Department sought his extradition from Libya after charging him in connection with the bombing in December 2020, taking him into custody two years later in December 2022.
U.S. prosecutors allege Al-Marimi and others were ordered to carry out the attack by the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
If Al-Marimi is convicted, he will be only the second person to face justice over the attack after Lybian intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of planting the bomb in 2001 but was freed after eight years due to a terminal cancer diagnosis and died in 2012 still protesting his innocence.
Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, a station manager for Libyan Airlines, was prosecuted alongside al-Megrahi but was acquitted.
