Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi had returned to Tripoli after being released from prison on compassionate grounds on 30 September 2021 when armed men came to his home about two weeks later. Some were masked. They gave no reason for taking him and did not identify themselves.
Mas'ud, a former Libyan intelligence official in his mid-70s, says that seizure led to an unlawful rendition to the United States. He was taken to a prison in Misrata, about 116 miles (187 km) east of Tripoli.
On the morning of 11 December 2022, his captors gave him a sandwich and tea, then told him to pack. At Misrata airport, a US government aircraft was waiting. Mas'ud was handed to the FBI with a “loosely fitted cloth hood” over his head.
Libyan authorities gave FBI agents a plastic “trash bag” containing his Quran, prayer rug, clothing, toiletries and medicine. During the flight to the US, FBI agents questioned Mas'ud, gave him clean clothes and blankets, and carried out what was described as a “head to toe medical examination”.
Mas'ud alleges that armed men abducted him and handed him to FBI agents “hooded and bound”. He argues that the transfer was a forcible abduction outside lawful process, and that US courts therefore lack jurisdiction to try him.
The case concerns Pan Am Flight 103, which was destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988. All 259 passengers and crew died, along with 11 people on the ground, making 270 deaths in total.
The US charged Mas'ud in December 2020 with destroying the airliner. At the time, he was in Libyan custody for attacking rebel forces during the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.
He denies building and priming the bomb. Prosecutors allege that he took a suitcase containing the device to an airport in Malta and passed it to co-conspirators for a flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
They further allege that Mas'ud and others carried out the attack on Gaddafi's orders. Gaddafi was ousted and killed during the 2011 civil war.
Brittany Keil, a US attorney, told the court: “The purpose of the plan was to inflict pain and horror that would be reported around the world.”
Mas'ud faces two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death, carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison if he is convicted.
The US Department of Justice says the circumstances of his removal should not prevent the trial from proceeding. Dorothy Bain KC, Scotland's Lord Advocate, told the Scottish Parliament that she had received confirmation Mas'ud entered US custody “on a lawful basis”.
An Interpol red notice was in force when Mas'ud was transferred, asking law-enforcement bodies around the world to locate and provisionally arrest him.
Abdulhamid Dbeibah, Libya's prime minister, later secured US financial investment, including $16 million to support Libya's transition to a democratic state and a contract with the US oil company Honeywell International.
Mas'ud is the latest person to face proceedings over the bombing. Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi was found guilty of mass murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was freed on compassionate grounds in 2009 after a terminal cancer diagnosis, and died in Tripoli in 2012.
Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah was cleared and returned home to a hero's welcome. He died last month, days after Mas'ud's trial was postponed.
Mas'ud's trial had been scheduled for August. It was delayed after new evidence was discovered, and jury selection is now due to begin on 20 January 2027.
Comments (0)