The trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Kheir Al-Marimi for his involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has been postponed days before it was set to begin due to “newly discovered evidence”.
Jury selection was scheduled to start on August 26, 2026, in Washington DC however new evidence from the US government was presented to lawyers in the last few days that warranted further examination.
On August 24, 2026, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich ordered that the trial be postponed without giving any further details about the nature of the evidence.
Lawyers representing Al-Marimi said that “constitutional and ethical obligations require the defense to investigate this development”.
Judge Dabney Friedrich said a hearing will be held on September 1, 2026, to discuss the status of the case.
The prosecution believes that Al-Marimi of Tunisia and Libya, built the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people.
Al-Marimi is on trial after being charged with two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death.
The victims included 190 Americans, 43 citizens of the UK, including 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland, and citizens from the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Trinidad and Tobago.
At 19:03, local time, Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed 38 minutes after takeoff from London-Heathrow airport (LHR), when a bomb in the forward cargo area exploded.
The plane was at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland and was en route to John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) in New York at the time of the tragedy.
The US Department of Justice has previously alleged that Al-Marimi worked for the Libyan intelligence service in various capacities including as a technical expert in building explosive devices.
He’s accused of flying to Malta with a prepared suitcase and handing it to two associates.
In 1991, criminal charges were filed against two Libyan intelligence operatives, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, for their roles in the bombing.
They were tried in a Scottish court sitting in The Netherlands. Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi was found guilty.
If found guilty, Al-Marimi could face the rest of his life in prison. He denies the charges against him.