Latest news with #Lockerbie
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The long wait for answers over Lockerbie bombing grows longer
Major television productions are bringing the story of the Lockerbie bombing to a new global audience, but the real life drama of the trial of a new Libyan suspect has been delayed once Agila Mohammed Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi, known as Masud, had been due to face a Washington jury last month, accused of making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 and killed 270 12 May starting date was abandoned because of problems with his health and the complexity of the case, and the trial is now scheduled to start in April, date was set at the District of Columbia District Court, where Masud listened with the help of a translator and was expressionless throughout. After the hearing, relatives of American victims of the bombing told BBC News of their disappointment that the trial is now scheduled to start 50 weeks later than originally Weipz is the president of the US group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and lost her 20-year-old brother Richard Monetti on the plane."I'm just going to pray that it stays at 20 April," she said. "I was 15 when this happened, and I'm 52 now and among the relatives I'm considered young."A lot of our family members are in their seventies and eighties and unfortunately, we lose them weekly or monthly now."The travesty in all of this that they're not seeing the justice that they've worked 37 years to see."That's what concerns us the most, that this trial will come around and we'll have lost more family members." Victoria Cummock's husband John was coming home from a business trip to Europe a day earlier than planned, to surprise his founder of the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Foundation, Mrs Cummock said: "We've lived through 36 years of delays and postponements simply because this is an international case filled with politics."Thirty six years with seven different administrations in America have really collided with the families' search for accountability and justice."It's no surprise that our mission to hold them to account is being delayed."Mrs Cummock added she was concerned that President Trump's ban on Libyan citizens travelling to the US could affect the said: "It just seems like it's a very slow journey to getting this case started." Masud's health problems Masud has been in US custody since December 2022 and has pled not guilty to the Tunisian-born Libyan is in his seventies and is understood to have diabetes and heart family in Libya has already expressed concerns over the delays to the case, saying he's an innocent new trial date was fixed after a joint motion submitted by the prosecution and the defence, both of whom raised the international nature of the evidence and witnesses.A series of crucial legal arguments will have to be resolved before the trial can go ahead, with the judge Dabney Friedrich describing the 20 April date as "tentative."Those will include the admissibility of a confession Masud is alleged to have made while in custody in 2012, following the collapse of Colonel Gaddafi's regime. Another complication is the fact that new information on the case is still emerging, almost four decades after the attack.A book published in France revealed the existence of documents said to have been retrieved from the archives of the Libyan intelligence service, of which Masud is alleged to have been a proved genuine, those documents detail his involvement in preparations for the attack on Pan Am more than 24 years since the first Lockerbie trial, when three Scottish judges convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdulbasset al-Megrahi of playing a key role in the plot. Megrahi was jailed for life but released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died three years later at home in release infuriated many of the American relatives, which is why they have set so much store on the trial of Masud, the first suspect to face an American court over believe it will deliver the justice they were denied by the Scottish legal bombing remains the worst terror attack in British history and claimed the lives of 43 UK citizens. 'This isn't a normal criminal case' Some, but not all, of the British relatives have never accepted the verdict against Megrahi, including the Rev John Mosey, whose daughter Helga was on the plane."I think they're just waiting for people like me to pop our clogs and get out of the way," he said."I'm still pretty cynical about the whole thing. I would like to be proved wrong but I can't see it happening."As far as I'm concerned, who made the bomb and who put in on the plane are secondary as to who were the main criminals."They were the group of people who had all the warnings that this was going to happen and warned their own people but didn't warn the public."The big budget television dramas may have pushed the Lockerbie bombing back into the public eye but it's clear that there's a very long way to go before a jury delivers its verdict on Friedrich warned that if things are not done in a timely manner, there's a risk the trial could "slip" into she reminded everyone in the court: "This isn't a normal criminal case."
The National
05-06-2025
- General
- The National
US judge schedules Lockerbie bombing suspect's trial for April 2026
The US judge overseeing the case of Lockerbie bombing suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Masud has set jury selection for April 20, 2026. Judge Dabney Friedrich acknowledged the ' complicated nature ' and 'voluminous discovery of evidence' in the case surrounding the 1988 attack that resulted in the explosion of a Pan Am flight and the deaths of 270 people in Scotland. Mr Masud, 73, limped into court and donned headphones to listen to the status conference in Arabic. He looked straight ahead for the whole proceedings, never glancing at victims' families, who took up several rows of court seats. He didn't appear to communicate with his court-appointed lawyer during proceedings. In 2023, Mr Masud pleaded not guilty in connection to one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in UK and US history. Only one other person, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, has been convicted for the bombing. After his conviction in 2001, Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison, but he was eventually released on compassionate grounds and died in Libya in 2012. In 2003, Libya claimed responsibility for the attack that brought down the plane. The US government filed charges against Mr Masud in 2020, but it took more than two years to extradite him from Libya. Mr Masud's health problems, lawyer changes and logistical problems have caused the trial planning to move at a snail's pace. A court transcript seen by The National show the methodical nature of the case. At least three depositions of foreign citizens will have to take place outside the US before the trial begins, according to the court transcript. Though specifics are not disclosed, ways of potentially dealing with Mr Masud's health problems are also discussed. His court-appointed lawyers have promised to provide updates about his medical condition to better prevent any delays. In court on Thursday, Judge Friedrich emphasised the need to stay on schedule. 'I want this to be aggressive,' she said, referring to trial planning dates and schedule preparations. Mr Masud's lawyer told the judge that although there is 'some disagreement' about the extent of his medical problems, both defence and prosecutors are on the same page about how to deal with it going forward. All 259 people on board the Pan Am flight died in the attack and 11 people were killed on the ground by falling debris on December 21, 1988, shortly after the plane took off from London bound for New York. Of the victims, 190 were US citizens, along with people from the UK and Argentina, India, South Africa and Spain, among others.
BBC News
05-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Lockerbie bombing trial in the US delayed until next year
The trial of a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed an American airliner over Lockerbie has been delayed until spring next year. Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, was due to face a jury in Washington last month but the starting date was postponed due to his poor health and the complexity of the case. At the request of the prosecution and defence, the trial will now get under way next April. Masud has denied priming the explosive device which brought down Pan Am flight 103 on 21 December 1988, killing 270 people. The explosion killed 259 passengers and crew and a further 11 people in the Dumfries and Galloway town when wreckage of the Boeing 747 fell on their remains the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United who is in his early 70s, is described as a joint citizen of Libya and has been receiving treatment for a non-life threatening medical a joint status report to the US district court for the District of Columbia last month, both parties referred to the "complex, international nature" of evidence in the case, adding that a pre-trial schedule would be "atypical".Lawyers also requested an early deadline for motions to "suppress the defendant's statement," presumed to be an alleged confession Masud made while in jail in Libya in claim, which is said to be of "importance to the [US] government's case," alleges that Masud admitted working for the Libyan intelligence service and confessed to building the device which brought down the aircraft. It is also alleged he named two accomplices, Abdelbasset Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah was convicted of murdering the 270 victims and died in Tripoli in 2012 after being freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Amin Khalifah Fhimah, his co-accused in the trial at the Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands, was found not and US prosecutors first named Masud as a suspect in the case in 2015 following the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in was charged five years later by then-US attorney general William Barr with the destruction of an aircraft resulting in was taken into US custody in 2022 after being removed from his home by an armed militia.
Daily Mail
04-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Chilling conversation Lockerbie bombing victim had with her friend before boarding doomed Pan Am flight revealed
A woman has revealed the chilling conversation she had with a friend - before she passed away on the doomed Pan American flight which was blown up in the horrific Lockerbie bombing 37 years ago. Speaking in a new documentary for the BBC, Alison from Surrey recalled the haunting words she exchanged with co-worker Teresa 'Terri' Saunders, 28, before she got on the plane to New York at Heathrow with her pro-golfer boyfriend William 'Billy' MacAllister, 26. The couple, both seated next to one another, were on their way to the United States for Christmas. Thirty eight minutes into the journey on December 21, 1988, an explosion killed everyone on board, as well as 11 residents in the remote Scottish town they were over. And in the programme which aired last night, Alison said how Terri didn't want to get on the aircraft because she felt sick. 'We had lunch together. We had pizza. We ordered it in and we were sitting at her desk because we didn't have time to go out,' she explained. 'She needed to get away from work early so she could get to Heathrow on time. 'She was full of fluey cold and I can remember her saying "Al, the last thing I feel like is getting on that plane. All I want to do is curl up and go to sleep".' Billy and Terri were going through the Big Apple as he had some meetings to attend to there - and they were set to go down to Orlando for the holiday afterwards. Terri was hoping Billy was going to propose, according to her loved ones. '[Billy] hated flying,' his friend Stewart added. 'He would always pile up on miniatures of Gordon's gin and drink them to calm his nerves because he genuinely hated flying. It's really ironic and horrible that he died the way he died in the circumstances.' Alison has kept a picture of Terri on her fridge so she can remember her every day. Recounting the aftermath, she said: 'When I walked into work the next day everyone that I saw was white, shaken, shocked and crying. All I could I see was Terri's desk, everything beautifully, neatly laid out.' The pair were among 270 who died in the tragedy; and loved ones of six victims have shared the harrowing loss in Lockerbie: Our Story, which is now available on iPlayer. In another moving account, family members of the late Olive Gordon also reflected on a chat they shared with the 25-year-old hairdresser. 'She was just yapping, you know?' her sister Donna expressed. 'Saying "Ah! I'm going to America tomorrow!" 'I said "I thought you were going to Birmingham?" She said "No, I changed my mind, I'm going to go to New York and I'm going to buy stuff" She loved shopping.' When she heard news of the bombing, Donna 'felt numb'. 'All I could see was bright lights,' she said. 'I can't even describe it because I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.' 'I have always asked "Why her? Why my sister?",' Olive's brother Colyn also said in the show. 'And it's something that you sort of battle with. And I'm still battling with it a little bit. Well not a little bit, a lot.' To this day, the family is deeply affected. Olive's niece Tanneisha became emotional as she recounted the effects of the tragedy on her mother as they visited a memorial. 'Whenever I try and plan a holiday away for the whole family, [Donna] is always like "we can't go on the same plane, we fly separately",' she said tearfully. 'And I used to think she was kind of overreacting but like, today I don't think that anymore. I can see why.' Donna also shared how the family had to go to Lockerbie after the bombing. 'There was a centre somewhere there... and they said "they're starting to put the bodies there". 'And I'm thinking, God, I wonder if she's there.' 'I remember the crater, this huge hole,' Colyn added. 'And these little bits all over the place. It just had this smell. My God, my sister was found somewhere here. However, despite the devastation, everyone also spoke of their love for the people of Lockerbie - who took care of not only the victims' bodies but went through the painstaking process of cleaning belongings to be returned to families. 'Just thinking about it now makes me emotional because those people, they don't know you, they've never met you - but they way they treated you, it's as if you were family,' Colyn expressed. 'The people of Lockerbie showed how humanity works. How to display compassion. To display love. Just a hand on your shoulder. I'll never forget them. I remember this giving me hope that there's going to be a better tomorrow.' The documentary also heard from John, who lost his father Minas Kulukundis, 38, in the tragedy. His dad's uncle had died and he, along with other relatives, were due to take Concorde to New York for the funeral - and take it back again to be back just in time for Christmas. But Minas, a shipping broker, was rebooked to take doomed Pan Am 103. 'My father has to be much more than the event that killed him,' John said. 'His memory is almost tainted by the way that he died. It can easily overshadow his memory. The memory of the man and it's the memory of the man that is important, not his death.' Elsewhere one of the victims - Helga Mosey - had just turned 19 when her life was taken by the bombing. She was on her way to the United States, where she worked as an au pair. In the documentary, her father Reverend John and Lisa both revealed the heartbreaking moment they realised what had happened to her. '"What's on the news, on the television, that's nothing to do with us, that's other people". It didn't click,' her dad said. 'But Lisa picked it up straight away. She said "That's Helga's plane". There was a stunned silence and the silence was broken by [her brother] Marcus shouting "No, no, no, no!"' 'Your life is halved when your child is gone,' Lisa added. 'And you have to try and adapt to that.' The show also heard from Rose - who was the girlfriend of banker Tim Burman, 24. 'At my work, someone had to be there in the office and that was going to be me,' she explained. 'So Tim said "Well, that's not a problem, I'll just come to New York and we'll have Christmas in New York. Man that'll be so exciting".' 'I enjoyed his sense of humour, his style, sense of adventure and his ability to get on with everyone.' She continued: 'I called Pan Am to find out what the expected arrival time was. Eventually somebody came on the phone and said that there was a problem with the flight and that the flight won't be coming, it won't be landing, that there was an accident.' The Lockerbie bombing took place on December 21, 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky. The New York-bound Boeing 747, named Maid of the Seas, was passing five miles above the Scottish town when the explosion tore it apart. When first reports of a crash came through, many assumed it was a low-flying military training flight which had come to harm. Flight 103 went down three minutes after 7pm, about half an hour after take-off from Heathrow, as it passed over the town heading out to the west. The flight was running slightly late and should already have been out over the Atlantic en route to New York. The cockpit section fell to earth at Tundergarth, about five miles out of town, landing in a field in rolling countryside within yards of a country church and graveyard. A fuselage section came down on streets in Rosebank, on the northern edge of the town. Meanwhile, the fuel-laden wing section came down on the Sherwood area on the western edge of Lockerbie, adjoining the A74 road, now a motorway. As it came down it exploded in a fireball made worse by ruptured gas mains. It was in this area, Sherwood Crescent, where 11 Lockerbie residents were killed. No trace was ever found of some of the victims, who were vaporised in the fireball. Lockerbie's Town Hall and its ice-rink were pressed into service as temporary mortuaries and within 24 hours of the disaster, a total of 1,000 police had been drafted in, along with 500 military helpers. In the initial stages, 40 ambulances and 115 personnel attended at Lockerbie. They stood down shortly afterwards due to the minimal number of casualties, with all those involved in the tragedy either dead or having suffered minor injuries. The bodies and wreckage had come down in two main flight corridors, one of which included the Kielder forest in Northumbria, the most densely-wooded part of the UK. At the height the plane had been flying, winds were more than 100 knots. Some of the lighter pieces of wreckage were found miles away. On the night of the crash, police made an immediate policy decision to treat the disaster as a criminal investigation. Public confirmation of what had been suspected from the outset came on December 28, when investigators announced that traces of high explosive had been found and the plane had been brought down by a bomb. A later fatal accident inquiry was to determine that the bomb was in a Toshiba radio-cassette player in a Samsonite suitcase which 'probably' joined the flight at Frankfurt in Germany. Of the 259 passengers and crew - 150 men and 109 women - killed, 188 were Americans and 33 were British. The others came from 19 other countries including France, Germany, India, Sweden, Australia and Japan. The 11 people who were killed on the ground - four males and seven females - were all British. Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the atrocity. He was jailed for 27 years but died of prostate cancer aged 60 in 2012 after being released on compassionate grounds in 2009. Earlier this year, a review of his conviction was announced. Some suspect he may have been made a scapegoat and that other countries were involved in the terror attack. Meanwhile, Abu Agila Masud, 72, who is alleged to have helped make the bomb, is to go on trial in the US in May 2025 facing three charges which he denies.
BBC News
03-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Lockerbie-Syracuse scholarship scheme set to restart
A scholarship scheme - set up in the wake of the Lockerbie bombing - which sends Scottish school pupils to a US university is set to be revived. Two Lockerbie Academy students were selected to study at Syracuse University in New York state every year between 1989 and 2024 but no intake will happen in 2025/ Syracuse students were among 270 victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. The university has announced that the scholarship is now due to restart in autumn 2026 but it is unclear who will fund the programme. Previously, the Lockerbie students selected to spend a year at the US university were chosen by the Lockerbie Syracuse Trust (LST). The scheme was funded by both the university and the trust - with a contribution also understood to come from Dumfries and Galloway will been no intake for 2025/26 but Syracuse University has now relaunched the scheme, describing it as a "reimagined partnership". Students will be chosen by a panel of representatives from the university and the academy using "elevated selection criteria based on rigorous academic standards". The university said it would select students who demonstrate "academic excellence and a deep understanding" of the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy. A press statement makes no mention of the LST and does not state how the scheme will be funded. Carolyne Wilson, who chairs the LST, said the funding situation had not been confirmed with them."Previously, Syracuse University have funded part of it, and the trust has picked up the other part which equates to about £40,000 a year," she said. She said the LST would be happy for that arrangement to continue but it had not been approached to do so."I think there would definitely need to be discussions between all parties because obviously we would love to strengthen and maintain our partnership with both Lockerbie Academy and Syracuse University to provide the best opportunities possible for the students of Lockerbie and the surrounding area," she added. Anna Newbould, one of the Lockerbie Academy scholars for 2024/25, said it was important to keep the link."I think everyone would agree that it's incredibly important for this scholarship to continue, not just as an experience for the upcoming students but especially for the families of the victims who were sadly lost," she said."Without the scholarship, the connection with Lockerbie, I believe, would only fade over time and ultimately it could be forgotten which is not something anyone wants."Now more than ever, as the disaster is drifting further from the current generation, 36 years on, it's important to keep educating future generations and to keep the victims' memories alive." 'Reforge our bond' Brian Asher, head teacher at Lockerbie Academy, welcomed the move to re-establish the scholarship. He said: "Syracuse University has, since the terrible events of 21 December 1988, held a special place in the heart of Lockerbie."We reforge our bond in honour of all those who were lost that night. "I am excited to work with our Syracuse University colleagues on behalf of the academy as we build on our shared past, towards a shared future."Syracuse University said the scheme would run until at least 2028.
