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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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.
When they made America truly great its backbone was forged in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The steel for 80% of Manhattan’s skyscrapers, many of the US Navy’s battleships, and even the entire San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, all came from its blast furnaces in the hills north of Philadelphia.
Its mammoth steel plants stretched for almost five miles.
They lie empty and unused, now a huge open-air museum for guided tours led by former plant workers like Don Young.
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The 87-year-old has been married to Barbara for 20 years, but their marriage has been tested in recent months, as have many others in the most divisive presidential election in living memory.
Both Republicans, she is for Donald Trump, he is emphatically not.
Mr Trump, I pointed out, claimed he could make America great again. Did he believe him?
“No, I do not believe him. My wife does,” he said. “I’ve seen the rise of dictators in history.
“As much as I am a studier of the history of industry, I’m also a studier of the history of politics and world politics. And, you know, Mr Trump’s campaign literally, literally mirrors that of Adolf Hitler.”
His wife sees Mr Trump completely differently: “I absolutely do not agree with that. And I’m sorry to hear my husband say this. And I actually believe we have seen what President Trump can do and how our country was when he was in office.”
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Mr Young now offers tours of the former steel plants
Trump ‘is the future for America’, Ms Young says
Their town has recovered from the collapse of Bethlehem Steel. But it’s the state of America that worries Ms Young now.
And it is Mr Trump who can save it, she said.
“He is the future for America,” she said. “I don’t want to see people coming over our border. We’ve had women murdered and raped by illegal immigrants. Who wants their children dead as a result of fentanyl, which comes over the border?”
Trump is ‘going to run America into the ground’
Her husband’s view is diametrically opposed.
“I think he’s going to run America into the ground because he does not observe any of the Democratic norms that his predecessors have,” he said.
“He didn’t observe them when he was in office. And so that’s just a window on what will happen in this coming term.”
Pennsylvania will likely determine presidential election result
Their marriage mirrors the state of play in the place they live in.
Pennsylvania is on a knife edge, say the polls, split right down the middle and the outcome here will likely determine the result on election day in this most important of swing states.
They can agree on one thing. They cannot wait for this election to be over.
Mr Young said their marriage can survive a Trump victory. Ms Young thinks so too.
The closest, nastiest, most divisive presidential election in living memory will be over soon. The bitterness and division that has plagued it less so in this deeply polarised country.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have won baseball’s World Series for the second time in five years but the celebrations were marred by looting and violence.
The Dodgers took the title by beating the New York Yankees 4-1 in the best-of-seven final in New York on Wednesday night, US time.
But soon after the match ended and jubilant Dodgers fans spilled on to the streets to celebrate, there were reports of a bus being set on fire, shops being looted and fireworks thrown at police in scenes of “absolute chaos” in downtown LA.
Los Angeles Dodgers players celebrate winning baseball’s World Series. Pic: AP
At around 10.45pm, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said it received reports of “looting at several stores in the area of 8th and Broadway”.
Ordering people to “leave the area immediately” on X, the force reposted a video of looters raiding a Nike store where a door had been removed so thieves could get in.
A Dodgers fan celebrates in Los Angeles. Pic: Reuters
Several dispersal orders were issued for different locations in the city, including in streets close to the Dodger Stadium in the Elysian Park area.
A bus was set on fire as part of the disorder.
Eyewitness and LA resident Taylor Rosa, 27, told Sky’s US partner network NBC News it was “absolute chaos”, as people “got out of control and started looting and jumping on top of a bus”.
Among the comments on Instagram were “damn embarrassment” and “they act like the Dodgers lost”.
Multiple arrests were made throughout the night in Echo Park and the downtown area, according to the Los Angeles Scanner account on X.
The LAPD later spoke of a “hostile crowd” and that “various projectiles”, including rocks and bottles, were being thrown at officers.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Meanwhile, two Yankees fans missed the end of the series after they were banned for interfering with play during the fourth match, the New York team’s only win.
They grappled with the Dodgers’s Mookie Betts as he tried to catch a shot by the fence at the Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.
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As Betts leapt at the wall and caught the ball, one fan grabbed his glove with both hands and wrenched the ball out, as another grabbed Betts’s other hand.
They were thrown out of the game and banned from the next one.
The Dodgers beat the Yankees 7-6 in game five. Pic: AP
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani with the trophy. Pic: AP
The last time the Dodgers won the title, in 2020, the season was shortened by the COVID pandemic, which prevented them from staging a victory parade.
This year’s parade is to take place on Friday.
Elon Musk has been summoned to an emergency court hearing on Thursday over the $1m prizes he has been awarding registered voters in swing states.
The Tesla and X chief executive has been ordered by a judge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to address a civil case by the city’s top prosecutor to stop Mr Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, from giving the cash away.
The suit accuses Mr Musk of operating an illegal lottery and trying to influence voters in next week’s presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Mr Musk and his PAC are backing Mr Trump, the Republican nominee.
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The controversial billionaire promised to give $1m (£772,000) each day to resgistered voters in swing states who have signed his online free speech and gun rights petition.
The first $1m was awarded to a man named John Dreher during a campaign event in Pennsylvania on 19 October.
Both Mr Trump and Ms Harris have made repeated visits to the state as they fight for its 19 electoral votes.
Mr Musk is the world’s richest person and is worth $274bn (£210bn), according to Forbes, so the approximate $17m (£13m) he’s vowed to give away is a tiny fraction of his wealth.
The 53-year-old had donated $75m (£58m) to American PAC in the period up to mid-October.
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Documents filed by Philadelphia’s district attorney Larry Krasner also revealed that the lawsuit against Mr Musk had “triggered an avalanche of [social media] posts from Musk’s followers,” many of whom “made antisemitic attacks on Krasner”.
The attorney asked for enhanced security for the hearing, which was originally scheduled for Friday, after users on X had published Mr Krasner’s home address.
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‘Tell him I’ll register, $1 million!’
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
America PAC is one of several major political action committees in the US.
Such groups can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in support of political candidates, on the condition that they do not coordinate with their campaigns or give money to them.
Mr Trump has said he will give Mr Musk a government job if he becomes president again.
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