Media reports in the USA suggest that charges will be brought against a Libyan man, Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, who is suspected of making the bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 and that prosecutors will soon seek his extradition to stand trial in the United States.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the US Department of Justice is expected to unseal a criminal complaint against Masud, who is currently being held in Libya, in the coming days, quoting senior department officials.
270 people died as a result of the bombing which took place over Lockerbie, including eleven people from the town and it remains the deadliest terrorist incident ever to have taken place on British soil.
Following an extensive investigation, Libyan national Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted at a special trial under Scots law on neutral ground at Camp Zeist in the Netherland, but he has always proclaimed his innocence.
He was given a 27-year sentence but was controversially released from prison in Scotland and allowed to return to Libya on compassionate grounds in 2009 after it emerged that he had terminal cancer. He died three years later at his home in Tripoli, aged 60.
A Scottish court is now considering a posthumous appeal against his conviction by his family.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal service told the BBC: “This is an ongoing investigation and we have no comment to make at this time.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
