Lockerbie disaster: Man accused of making bomb that blew up Pan Am flight 103 appears in US court
The man accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 has appeared in a US court.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al Marimi appeared in person at the Washington DC federal courthouse.
Dressed in a green jumpsuit, he walked slowly into court and spoke up only to confirm his name. He was not invited to enter a plea.
About 20 people whose relatives died in the bombing were in the public gallery.
Among them was a widow with her daughter and a man with his father who lost his mother.
They were some of many families made incomplete by the biggest terror attack in British history.
“I’ve been doing this [pursuing justice] for 34 years,” one relative, Stephanie Bernstein, told Sky News.
“My daughter was seven when my husband was killed… The United States government is going to take care of its citizens in life and in death… grateful to the Biden administration.”
Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the bombing, said he hoped Mas’ud would eventually tell the bereaved families more about what really happened that day.
“Hopefully he can tell us about how it was done, and contribute to discovering the truth about this ghastly, terrible business.”
The proceedings lasted under an hour and paved the way for a further detention hearing on 27 December.
Mas’ud said, through federal lawyers assigned to him, that he had not yet been able to assign his own legal counsel. He has been given a week to do so, and he will remain in custody.
The 243 passengers and 16 crew on board the plane all died
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Investigation concluded bomb placed in suitcase
Mas’ud has long been sought by prosecutors and suspected of being the “third man” behind the downing of the American plane over Lockerbie in December 34 years ago.
The 747 jumbo was at 31,000ft and just over half an hour into its transatlantic flight from London Heathrow to New York’s JFK airport when a bomb exploded.
The 243 passengers and 16 crew on board the plane all died. On the ground, in the town of Lockerbie in Dumfries and Galloway, 11 more people died as debris fell on to homes.
A painstaking and lengthy investigation combed 845-square miles of Scottish countryside for debris. It concluded that the bomb had been placed inside a cassette player that was wrapped in clothes and placed inside a suitcase.
After the Libyan government claimed responsibility in 2003, two former members of its intelligence service were arrested, extradited and tried.
Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah was acquitted. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was found guilty and jailed for life in 2012.
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Suspect Lockerbie bomb maker arrested
Investigators always suspected third man
Megrahi, who failed twice to have his conviction overturned, was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 and died in Libya in 2012.
But investigators always suspected a third man was part of the plot.
In 2011 after the overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi, Mas’ud was taken into custody in Libya as part of a sweep of arrests of regime loyalists.
The following year, he is said to have told a Libyan law-enforcement official that he was the Lockerbie bomb maker.
This apparent confession in 2012 formed the basis of a US Department of Justice case against him which was released in 2020.
The details of how Mas’ud was transferred from Libyan custody to American hands has not been revealed.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al-Marimi in US custody
Scotland’s top law officer to meet US officials
The bombing remains the deadliest terror attack in British history. People from 21 counties were killed.
Scotland’s top law officer has welcomed the news that Mas’ud is in US custody.
“The steps taken by the US justice authorities are significant and progress towards a legal breakthrough is welcomed by Scottish prosecutors and police,” Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC said.
“The tragic events of December 1988 have bound Scotland and the US together in deep loss and steadfast determination that all those who committed this atrocity should be brought before a court.”
She added: “For more than 20 years, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has maintained a case team working on this investigation, bringing together a range of prosecutorial expertise in counter-terrorism, major crime investigations, forensic analysis, international co-operation and mutual legal assistance.”
Ms Bain said officials in Scotland and the US will continue to investigate the case, “with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with al Megrahi to justice”.
She confirmed she would be meeting American officials next week to discuss the case.
US
Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem
Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.
The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
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Tariffs about something more than economics: power
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
Tanking stock markets, collapsing world orders, devastating trade wars; economists with their hair ablaze are scrambling to keep up.
But as we try to make sense of Donald Trumps’s tariff tsunami, economic theory only goes so far. In the end this surely is about something more primal.
Power.
Understanding that may be crucial to how the world responds.
Yes, economics helps explain the impact. The world’s economy has after all shifted on its axis, the way it’s been run for decades turned on its head.
Instead of driving world trade, America is creating a trade war. We will all feel the impact.
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PM will ‘fight’ for deal with US
Donald Trump says he is settling scores, righting wrongs. America has been raped, looted and pillaged by the world trading system.
But don’t be distracted by the hyperbole – and if you think this is about economics alone, you may be missing the point.
Above all, tariffs give Donald Trump power. They strike fear into allies and enemies, from governments to corporations.
This is a president who runs his presidency like a medieval emperor or mafia don.
It is one reason why since his election we have seen what one statesman called a conga line of sycophants make their way to the White House, from world leaders to titans of industry.
The conga line will grow longer as they now redouble their efforts hoping to special treatment from Trump’s tariffs. Sir Keir Starmer among them.
President Trump’s using similar tactics at home, deploying presidential power to extract concessions and deter dissent in corporate America, academia and the US media. Those who offer favours are spared punishment.
His critics say he seeks a form power for the executive or presidential branch of government that the founding fathers deliberately sought to prevent.
Whether or not that is true, the same playbook of divide and rule through intimidation can now be applied internationally. Thanks to tariffs
Each country will seek exceptions but on Trump’s terms. Those who retaliate may meet escalation.
This is the unforgiving calculus for governments including our own plotting their next moves.
The temptation will be to give Trump whatever he wants to spare their economies, but there is a jeopardy that compounds the longer this goes on.
Read more:
Do Trump’s numbers on tariffs really add up?
Trump hits island home only to penguins with 10% tariffs
Could America’s traditional allies turn to China? Pic: AP
Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister who coined the conga line comparison, put it this way: “Pretty much all the international leaders I have seen that have sucked up to Trump have been run over. The reality is if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s global affairs or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”
Trading partners may be able to mitigate the impact of these tariffs through negotiation, but that may only encourage this unorthodox president to demand ever more?
Ultimately the world will need a more reliable superpower than that.
In the hands of such a president, America cannot be counted on.
When it comes to security, stability and prosperity, allies will need to fend for themselves.
And they will need new friends. If Washington can’t be relied on, Beijing beckons.
America First will, more and more, mean America on its own.
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