A Libyan man believed to be the bombmaker who blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and left hundreds of people dead is in U.S. custody, American and Scottish officials said Sunday.
The revelation was made public after the 270 families of those who died were informed, Scottish officials said. The alleged bombmaker was identified as Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi.
The only person previously convicted for the terrorist attack was former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in 2001, who placed the bomb on the flight. He died from cancer while in Libyan custody in 2012.
All 259 people on board Pan Am Flight 103, which was traveling from London to New York, died due in the explosion, in addition to 11 people on the ground on Lockerbie, making it Britain’s deadliest terrorist attack.
Details were scarce about how Mr. Mas’ud was captured, but the Justice Department said he’ll make his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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