A Libyan man suspected of making the bomb that destroyed a passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 is in U.S. custody, authorities said on Sunday.
Pan Am flight 103, traveling from London to New York, exploded over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people aboard the plane and another 11 on the ground in what remains the deadliest terror attack on British soil.
The U.S. charged Abu Agela Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi for his alleged involvement in the bombing two years ago.
"The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agela Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi is in U.S. custody," a spokesperson for Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said in a statement to Newsweek on Sunday.
The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed Mas'ud was in a custody. A DOJ spokesperson told Newsweek: "He is expected to make his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Additional details, including information regarding public access to the initial appearance, will be forthcoming."
The U.S. Justice Department announced new charges against Mas'ud on the 32nd anniversary of the bombing in 2020, including destruction of an aircraft resulting in death.
Bill Barr, then attorney general, said at the time that the charges were "the product of decades of hard work by investigators and prosecutors who have remained resolute in their dogged pursuit of justice for our citizens, the citizens of the United Kingdom, and the citizens of the other 19 countries that were murdered by terrorists operating on behalf of the former Muammar Qaddafi regime when they attacked Pan Am Flight 103.
"As to all the victims and the families, we cannot take away your pain from your loss, but we can seek justice for you."
Citizens from 21 counties were killed in the attack, including 190 Americans—dozens of them students from Syracuse University returning home after studying abroad for a semester.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of bombing the flight in 2001.
The only person convicted over the attack to date, he lost one appeal and abandoned another before being freed in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was terminally ill with cancer. He died in Libya a decade ago, still protesting that he was innocent.
The Crown Office's statement on Sunday added: "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."
Update 12/11/22, 11:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with a statement from the Department of Justice.
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