Nearly 34 years after 270 people, including 190 Americans, died in the mid-air bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the Libyan intelligence officer accused of building the explosive device has been taken into custody by the United States to face justice, federal officials told ABC News.
Abu Agila Mas’ud will face criminal charges in the United States for his suspected role in the deadliest terror attack on British soil and the largest involving Americans, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice.
The United States has charged Mas’ud with building the device used to blow up the Boeing 747 as it was en route to Detroit from Frankford, Germany. Among those killed was a group of Syracuse University students returning from studying abroad.
The early morning scene in Lockerbie after Flight Pan Am 103 crashed into the town, Dec., 22, 1988.
Tom Stoddart Archive/Getty Images, FILE
“The United States has taken custody of alleged Pan Am flight 103 bomb maker Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi,” the DOJ said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear when Mas’ud will appear in court. He is expected to make his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, according to the DOJ.
“The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is in US custody,” a spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scotland’s public prosecution service, said in a statement to ABC News.
“Scottish prosecutors and police, working with UK Government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with Al Megrahi to justice,” the statement said.
The announcement comes two years after Mas’ud, who has been in custody in Libya at the time, was indicted on two federal criminal counts related to the bombing.
In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of his role in the bombing. He was released in 2009 because he had cancer and died in Libya in 2012.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.