US judge schedules Lockerbie bombing suspect's trial for April 2026

Judge Dabney Friedrich emphasises need to stay on schedule with trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Masud

Pan Am bombing suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Masud. Handout via Reuters

The US judge overseeing the case of Lockerbie bombing suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Masud has set jury selection for April 20, 2026.

Judge Dabney Friedrich acknowledged the “complicated nature” and “voluminous discovery of evidence” in the case surrounding the 1988 attack that resulted in the explosion of a Pan Am flight and the deaths of 270 people in Scotland.

Mr Masud, 73, limped into court and donned headphones to listen to the status conference in Arabic. He looked straight ahead for the whole proceedings, never glancing at victims' families, who took up several rows of court seats.

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  The remnants of a Pan Am commercial aircraft lie in a field in Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. AFP

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  Local residents look at one of the four engines of the Pan Am jet on a street in Lockerbie. AFP

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  The Boeing 747 'Clipper Maid of the Seas, which was flying from London to New York, was destroyed when a bomb was detonated in its forward cargo hold. AFP

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  The bombing of the jumbo jet killed all 259 people on board and another 11 people on the ground. AFP

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  Police and investigators look at what remains of the nose of Pan Am Flight 103 in a field in Lockerbie in December 1988. AP

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  The nose section of the crashed Boeing 747. AP

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  Houses destroyed by the downed jet. Getty

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  The bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack to have taken place in the UK. Getty

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  A memorial to those killed in the 1988 bombing in Lockerbie. Reuters

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  Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, second from left, a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103, has been taken into US custody. He was charged by the US two years ago in connection with the Lockerbie bombing. Reuters

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  Some of the destruction caused by Pan Am Flight 103 after it crashed. Getty

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  Investigators reconstructed parts of the jet and proved a bomb caused the crash. Getty

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  Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, the only person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, was released early from prison after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died in May 2012. Many have maintained that Al Megrahi was innocent.

He didn't appear to communicate with his court-appointed lawyer during proceedings. In 2023, Mr Masud pleaded not guilty in connection to one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in UK and US history.

Only one other person, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, has been convicted for the bombing. After his conviction in 2001, Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison, but he was eventually released on compassionate grounds and died in Libya in 2012. In 2003, Libya claimed responsibility for the attack that brought down the plane.

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  After a three-year investigation by the FBI and Scotland’s Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary into the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, arrest warrants were issued for two former Libyan intelligence operatives, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, pictured, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah in November 1991. AFP

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  Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands, in 1999. Megrahi, pictured, was convicted and jailed for life in 2001 – he was subsequently released in 2009 on compassionate grounds while terminally ill with cancer, and died in Libya in 2012. Megrahi was a Libyan intelligence officer and had collected the bomb in Malta and ordered the bombmaker to set the timer to detonate 11 hours later. The bomb was surrounded by clothes Megrahi had purchased in Malta. Getty Images

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  Court proceedings started in May 2000 and the judges announced their verdict on January 31, 2001. They were unanimous in finding Lamen Khalifa Fhimah not guilty. It had been alleged he had collected the suitcase containing the bomb in Malta and had placed it on the luggage conveyor belt. Mr Fhimah was released from custody and returned to his home in Libya in February 2001.

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  Last year the US extradited Abu Agila Mohammad Ma'sud from Libya and charged him with making the bomb. He is expected to stand trial next year. “The Justice Department has worked for more than three decades to seek justice for the 270 innocent victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said. “Mr Mas'ud is charged for his alleged role in this heinous act of terror and he will appear in an American courtroom to answer for those crimes. To those who would seek to harm Americans anywhere in the world, know that we will find you however far you run and we will hold you accountable however how long it takes.” It is alleged Mr Mas'ud worked for the Libyan intelligence service between 1973 to 2011 as a technical expert in building explosive devices. In the winter of 1988, it is alleged he was directed to fly to Malta with a prepared suitcase where he met Megrahi who instructed him to set the timer on the device in the suitcase for the following morning, so that the explosion would occur exactly 11 hours later. Subsequently, Mr Mas’ud boarded a Libyan flight to Tripoli. Reuters

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  Pan Am 103 was destroyed by a bomb hidden inside a stereo, killing 270 people. The original trial was told that the bomb had been placed on Air Malta flight KM180 and transferred to Pan Am flight 103. Clothes that covered the bomb were thought to have been bought in Malta and a shop owner identified Al Megrahi as the man who bought them. Remnants of the clothes were found at the crash site. Getty Images

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  In 2003 Libya claimed responsibility for the attack as part of a deal to lift UN sanctions. It paid more than $2 billion in compensation to the families of the victims. A month after it accepted culpability the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution lifting sanctions imposed on it over the bombing. Getty Images

The US government filed charges against Mr Masud in 2020, but it took more than two years to extradite him from Libya. Mr Masud's health problems, lawyer changes and logistical problems have caused the trial planning to move at a snail's pace.

A court transcript seen by The National show the methodical nature of the case. At least three depositions of foreign citizens will have to take place outside the US before the trial begins, according to the court transcript.

Though specifics are not disclosed, ways of potentially dealing with Mr Masud's health problems are also discussed. His court-appointed lawyers have promised to provide updates about his medical condition to better prevent any delays.

In court on Thursday, Judge Friedrich emphasised the need to stay on schedule. “I want this to be aggressive,” she said, referring to trial planning dates and schedule preparations.

Mr Masud's lawyer told the judge that although there is “some disagreement” about the extent of his medical problems, both defence and prosecutors are on the same page about how to deal with it going forward.

All 259 people on board the Pan Am flight died in the attack and 11 people were killed on the ground by falling debris on December 21, 1988, shortly after the plane took off from London bound for New York.

Of the victims, 190 were US citizens, along with people from the UK and Argentina, India, South Africa and Spain, among others.