Use of the word “terrorism” will be limited during the trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, who is accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.
US District Judge Dabney Friedrich made the decision at the request of Mr Masud's court-appointed defence team during a pre-trial hearing on Monday.
Ms Friedrich said that in addition to “terrorism”, the word “terrorist” would also be limited to prevent the jury from becoming biased. However, the words will be able to be used in certain contexts, such as witness job titles and areas of witness expertise.
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.
Mr Masud, who stands accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103, sat in court and listened to pre-trial deliberation through headphones as a translator sat behind him.
He was first charged in 2020 and brought into US custody in 2022, but health problems, defence team issues and lengthy pre-trial deliberations have delayed the keenly awaited trial.
During Monday's hearing, US prosecutors also told Ms Friedrich they planned to introduce as many as 150 pieces of crash evidence, much of which has been sitting in warehouses in Scotland for decades, during the upcoming trial.
Though details still need to be hashed out, Ms Friedrich also said she would allow for some phone and video calls made between Mr Masud and his family while in US custody to be used during the trial.
Lockerbie jury instructions
During a recent pre-trial hearing, both the prosecution and defence teams submitted proposals for jury instructions which included a warning for potential jurors to avoid the use of online prediction and betting markets during the trial.
The decision to include warnings about the use of firms 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.
Jury selection for the Lockerbie trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on August 25.
Masud confession?
Ms Friedrich also recently ruled that most of a purported confession would be allowed to be presented during the trial.
In February, a dispute developed about whether Mr Masud's alleged confession, made to a Libyan investigator in 2012, would be permissible to use at trial. Mr Masud claimed he had made a false confession under duress, alleging he had been threatened and assaulted.
Earlier in July during another court hearing, debate ensued over a Telex message composed and sent by Pan Am at the time about how to handle certain luggage.
“In the event of a no-show, into the belly of the plane the baggage goes,” 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 snuck into a suitcase in Malta and eventually placed on Flight 103 at London's Heathrow Airport.
The upcoming trial will take place weeks after Netflix released a six-part mini-series, The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which portrays the events leading up to and the investigation of the incident. The series has grown in popularity in recent weeks, ranking among Netflix’s top 10 TV shows in the US.
The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
