Lockerbie Bombing Trial Postponed, Prolonging Decades-Long Wait

The terrorism trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, the alleged bombmaker behind the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was postponed Monday, just two days before it was set to begin in Washington, D.C.

A judge cited the discovery of new evidence in delaying the trial but did not specify what that evidence was. The bombing killed 270 people, most of them Americans, including 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie. It remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens.

Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is the first person to be prosecuted on American soil in connection with the attack. The case broke open in 2017 when U.S. officials obtained a 2012 interview in which, according to an FBI affidavit, Al-Marimi admitted building the bomb and working with two conspirators. He reportedly said the operation was ordered by Libyan intelligence and that former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi thanked the team afterward.

Family members of victims reacted to the delay with a mix of resignation and hope. Aphrodite Tsairis, whose daughter Alexia died in the bombing, said the setback was not surprising. "From the very beginning, we had to fight adversity," she said, adding that at this point the trial feels like "putting the period at the end of the sentence."

Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband Michael was killed, called it "astonishing" that new evidence would surface decades later, but said it made the delay "somewhat less difficult to accept."

Bert Ammerman, who lost his brother Thomas, argued the case belongs beyond the criminal justice system entirely, saying other nations should still be held responsible even though Libya formally accepted responsibility in 2003 and agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to victims' families.

Suse Lowenstein, whose son Alex died on the flight, created a collection of 76 statues depicting grieving women that stands in her backyard in Montauk, New York. Her other son, Lucas, said he hopes the new evidence resolves any lingering doubts: "At this point, I feel that they got the right people."