Pan Am 103 Trial Delayed Over New Evidence

A federal judge postponed the U.S. trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, the Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, after new evidence was disclosed that defense lawyers want to review. The delay, which affects the first U.S. trial connected to the attack, pushes jury selection and proceedings to a later date with a Sept. 1 hearing set to discuss the case’s status. Prosecutors allege Al-Marimi helped construct the bomb that downed the airliner outside London, killing 270 people, including 190 Americans, with the attack tied to Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi. The defense says their constitutional and ethical obligations require investigating the newly revealed material, and the judge noted the complexity of the case as a reason for the postponement. Two other Libyan intelligence agents were previously tried by Scottish judges in the Netherlands in 2000, with mixed outcomes on identifying the bombmaker.