Libyan suspect Abu Agila Masud is in US custody for his involvement in the 1988 bombing. The explosion took place on a Boeing 747 flying from London to New York and left 270 people dead. All 259 passengers were killed as well as 11 people from the wreckage in Lockerbie, Scotland. The BBC has described this as the “deadliest terror incident to have taken place on British soil.”
Over the years, this case has been protracted and contentious and involved a trial on neutral ground in the Netherlands to convict former Libyan intelligence agent Abdul Basset Ali al-Megrahi in 2001. Megrahi launched two appeals against his 27-year sentence, neither of which were successful, but he was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 due to terminal cancer and died three years later. Since his death, members of the public have attempted to launch further appeals, but legally, only his family are allowed to do so and they lodged a new bid in 2017. The Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission claimed a miscarriage of justice may have happened due to an “unreasonable verdict” and “non-disclosure,” though many still believe he is guilty.
In November, Masud was kidnapped by Militia in Libya, and many speculated that he would be handed to US authorities. He was an alleged bomb-maker for ex-Libyan leader Gaddafi. He has been connected to a previous bombing in West Berlin in 1986, which left three people dead.
Furthermore, American journalist Ken Dornstein produced a 2015 TV documentary called ‘My Brother’s Bomber’, in which he went to Libya to track down Masud. Having lost his brother in the Lockerbie bombing, Dornstein investigated names connected to the case and found Masud a “mystery figure.” In researching him, Dornstein helped discover that Masud was alive, connected to Megrahi, and was present at Malta airport before the Lockerbie explosion. Ken expressed to the BBC in 2020 that he believed Masud was the “technical expert” whose “hands were the last hand on the device before it was sent onto 103.”
With Abu Agila Masud in US custody, hopefully, the families of Lockerbie victims will finally find justice for their loved ones after three decades of unanswered questions. Lastly, Ken Dornstein discovered that Masud was linked to a bombing at a nightclub in west berlin in 1986, killing three people. He was imprisoned in Libya over his role in the 2011 uprising that ousted Gaddafi.
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