Proposed jury instructions for the trial of a suspect accused of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 include a warning about online prediction and betting markets.
Federal prosecutors and court-appointed attorneys for Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, the man who US federal investigators say constructed the bomb, filed the "joint proposed jury instructions" on Thursday.
Those instructions will be read to a jury once the keenly awaited trial, which is scheduled for later in August, finally gets under way. The decision to include warnings about online betting markets such as Kalshi or Polymarket is a sign of how much the world has changed since the terrorist attack took place in 1988.
"You may have heard of online betting markets, prediction markets, or similar platforms where people can place bets or wagers on the outcome of events, including the outcome of court cases and trials," reads a portion of the proposed jury instructions obtained by The National.
"You must not visit, consult, or participate in any such betting or prediction market related to this case, at any time before or during your deliberations," the instructions continue, specifying that those rules also apply to "checking odds or predictions on any such platform concerning the verdict, the outcome of this trial, or any other aspect of the case".
Though the popularity of prediction and betting markets has skyrocketed in recent years, some public health experts have likened those platforms to gateway drugs that fuel compulsive gambling, while casinos have accused them of skirting regulatory rules that they must follow. Some states in the US have sought to ban them, and they have faced litigation.
Jury selection for the Lockerbie trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on August 25, though that date could be pushed back.
The trial will also take place after Netflix released a six-part film docudrama, The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which portrays the events leading up to and the investigation of the terrorist attack that brought down the plane.
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, 1988. Of the 270 victims, 190 were US citizens.
Only one person, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, has been convicted of the bombing. Al Megrahi died in 2012.
In February, a dispute developed about whether Mr Masud's confession, which was made to a Libyan investigator in 2012, would be permissible to use at trial. Mr Masud later claimed he had made a false confession under duress, also alleging he had been threatened, assaulted and forced to lie about having built the bomb.
Earlier in July during another court hearing, debate ensued over a potential piece of evidence, a Telex message composed and sent by Pan Am at the time about how to handle certain luggage.
βIn the event of a no-show, into the belly of the plane the baggage goes,β the Telex read, referring to passengers who, for whatever reason, did not make it on to the flight while their luggage did.
Investigators have long said the bomb that exploded on board was sneaked into a suitcase in Malta and eventually placed on Flight 103 at London Heathrow Airport.
District Judge Dabney Friedrich told US prosecutors that part of that message would be able to be admitted as evidence during the imminent trial but not the entire Telex they initially requested.
Throughout the lengthy pre-trial process in Washington, families of victims have often appeared in court, watching Mr Masud, who is now in his mid-70s and suffering from various health problems, walk into the courtroom and listen as his court-appointed attorneys and prosecutors debate specifics of the trial.
Mr Masud rarely speaks unless asked questions by District Judge Dabney Friedrich, and listens to proceedings through a translator via headphones. He was born in Tunisia and later became a Libyan intelligence operative.
There are several disagreements between prosecutors and Mr Masud's defence team regarding what should and should not be included in the coming jury instructions. One such point of contention is how the jury should interpret evidence linking Mr Masud to the deadly 1986 bombing at La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin. Another significant area of disagreement concerns Mr Masud's alleged confession.
The judge will ultimately decide the final jury instructions, and perhaps the biggest obstacle at this point will be finding a jury that isn't overly familiar with the Lockerbie disaster, over which there has already been a trial and significant media coverage. That point is made abundantly clear in the jointly filed jury instruction draft.
"You may occasionally hear references to previous testimony by some of the witnesses in this case," the instructions read. "I instruct you that there were no prior court proceedings related to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, in which this defendant was not a party ... the nature and outcome of those proceedings are not proper matters for you to consider in this trial."
