Suspect in 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing arrested by US

Nearly 34 years after 270 people, including 190 Americans, were killed in the mid-air bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the Libyan intelligence officer accused of making the explosive device has been arrested by the United States to face justice, federal officials told ABC News.

Abu Agila Mas’ud will face criminal charges in the United States for his alleged role in the deadliest terror attack on British soil and the largest involving Americans, according to a Justice Department spokesperson.

The United States commissioned Mas’ud to build the device used to blow up the Boeing 747 while en route to Detroit from Frankford, Germany. Among those killed was a group of Syracuse University students returning from studying abroad.

“The United States has arrested the alleged Pan Am Flight 103 bomb maker, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi,” the DOJ said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear when Mas’ud will appear in court. He is expected to make his first appearance in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, according to the DOJ.

“The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been informed that the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is being held by the United States,” a spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said. , the Scottish Public Prosecution Service. a statement to ABC News.

“Scottish prosecutors and police, together with the UK government and their US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing to justice those who acted with Al Megrahi,” the statement said.

The announcement comes two years after Mas’ud, then detained in Libya, was charged with two federal charges related to the bombing.

In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted for his role in the bombing. He was released in 2009 because he had cancer and died in Libya in 2012.

This is a developing story. Please check for updates.