The long-awaited trial of alleged Pan Am Lockerbie bomb maker Abu Agila Mohammad Masud is weeks away, but the US judge in the case issued a warning to prosecutors on Wednesday over evidence concerns.
During the pre-trial hearing, Washington District Judge Dabney Friedrich told lawyers making the case against Mr Masud that she was concerned they didn't seem to be working hard to ensure that all evidence presented in the case is properly certified and notarised.
"You proceed at your own peril," she told prosecutor Erik Kenerson, who argued that the Pan Am bombing had taken place 38 years ago and evidence had come from several countries, complicating the process of authenticating documents.
Ms Friedrich told Mr Kenerson that she understood the complications, but added that she felt US prosecutors have had ample time to ensure evidence is certified. She also said that in the event that Mr Masud were to be found guilty, failure to properly authenticate evidence before the trial would open the case up to an appeal.
Mr Masud, who sat silently in court during the exchange, is accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.
All 259 people on board died in the terrorist attack of which Mr Masud is accused. Eleven were killed on the ground in Lockerbie by falling debris from the explosion, which occurred shortly after the Pan Am flight took off from London on December 21. Of the 270 victims, 190 were US citizens.
"It's like you're not telling me something," she told Mr Kenerson.
The prosecutor replied that "this is a unique case".
"All the more reason for you to dot your Is and cross your Ts," Ms Friedrich said.
Roughly 150 pieces of crash evidence will be presented, along with witness accounts from several countries. Evidence will also come in the form of documents such as passports, hotel records, receipts, telegrams, baggage tags and letters. Many of those documents, as US prosecutors also indicated in court, come from Libya, the UK, the US, Malta, and what was known at the time as Czechoslovakia.
Later, Ms Friedrich told Conor Mulroe, another prosecutor, that she felt his team was trying to be "slippery" with how they introduced evidence.
"Your honour, if you perceive the government as being slippery or sliding then I apologise for that because we strive every day to advance arguments in good faith that we believe are supported by the law, and we believe are consistent with each other,” Mr Mulroe replied.
On Monday during a pre-trial hearing, at the request of Mr Masud's defence team, Ms Friedrich decided that the use of the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" would be limited throughout the trial to avoid prejudicing the jury. The words, however, will be able to be used in certain contexts, such as witness job titles and areas of witness expertise.
Jury selection for Mr Masud's trial is scheduled for August 25, though it could be pushed back in the event that pre-trial deliberations go longer than expected.
Adding to the buzz around the case has been the release of a six-part series by Netflix titled The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. It portrays the events leading up to and the investigation of the incident. The series has grown in popularity in recent weeks and ranks among Netflix’s top 10 TV shows in the US.
Mr Masud was first charged in 2020 and brought into US custody in 2022, but health problems, defence team problems and lengthy pre-trial deliberations have delayed the trial.
Only one person, the former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, has been convicted of the bombing. Al Megrahi died in 2012.
