Lockerbie bombing suspect pleads not guilty in 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 explosion

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A Libyan suspect in the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, pleaded not guilty Wednesday. The bombing killed 270 people, including 259 aboard the plane and 11 on the ground.

Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi faces three federal charges -- two of aircraft destruction resulting in death and one of destruction of a vehicle used in foreign commerce by an explosive. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Mas'ud was taken into custody in December. He was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department Dec. 14, 2020.

Mas'ud's not-guilty pleas came in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

U.S. prosecutors allege that Mas'ud worked for the Libyan intelligence service for decades as an explosive expert and was directed by Libyan Intelligence to prepare the bomb.

A Justice Department criminal complaint affidavit in 2020 said Mas'ud admitted under questioning by a Libyan law-enforcement officer that he built the bomb used to bring down the plane.

According to that initial 2020 criminal complaint, Mas'ud built the bomb and carried it in a suitcase to Malta's Luqa airport, where it was loaded onto an aircraft with a timer that Mas'ud allegedly admitted to setting to go off in eleven hours.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was the only person convicted in the Lockerbie bombing. He was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds after a terminal prostate cancer diagnosis.