Accused Libyan bombmaker in 1988 Lockerbie plane attack pleads not guilty

A former Libyan intelligence operative pleaded not guilty Wednesday to assembling the explosives used in the 1988 bombing of an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in U.S. history.

Accused Pan Am Flight 103 bombmaker Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir al-Marimi, now 71, entered his plea in federal court in Washington, following his apprehension in November at his family home in Tripoli and extradition the following month .

“At this time your honor we would enter a plea of not guilty,” said Whitney Minter, a public defender.

U.S. authorities said they would seek Mas’ud’s continued detention pending trial at a bond hearing Feb. 23. He possibly faces two counts, including destruction of an aircraft resulting in death, punishable by up to life in prison.

Mas’ud’s prosecution caps a decades-long pursuit by U.S. authorities, who announced criminal charges against him in 2020. Mas’ud was in Libyan custody for unrelated crimes at the time, after allegedly confessing to the bombing in 2012 following the ouster of longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.

Two other Libyan intelligence officers have been tried in the bombing. A Scottish court in 2001 convicted Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi but acquitted alleged accomplice Lamen Khalifa Fhimah. Megrahi was released from serving a life sentence in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer. He died three years later.