Lockerbie bombing accused loses bid to have case thrown out

The Libyan man accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie has lost his bid to have the case against him dismissed, after a US judge rejected his claim that he was brought into American custody through an illegal rendition.

Abu Agila Mas'ud al-Marimi, in custody since December 2022, argued he was violently abducted from his home in Tripoli by armed men and held for weeks without a lawyer, according to court documents reported by BBC Scotland News. His lawyers said the case should be dismissed because the United States had violated his constitutional rights.

But US district judge Dabney Friedrich ruled that the manner of his transfer should not prevent his trial from going ahead. She cited a longstanding American legal doctrine under which a court's right to hear a case is unaffected by how the accused was brought before it, finding that due process is satisfied when the accused is present in court.

The judge said two exceptions to that doctrine existed but neither applied. She found Marimi's allegations at best suggested US officials had exerted pressure on Libya rather than carrying out the abduction themselves, and that neither the Montreal Convention nor the Terrorist Bombing Convention limited Libya to a single method of transferring him.

In a separate ruling, she also rejected a defence bid to suppress a confession Marimi says was false and made under duress. The FBI has said he admitted building the bomb that killed 270 people when Pan Am 103 exploded over Scotland on 21 December 1988.

Marimi denies playing a key role in the attack. The only previous Lockerbie trial ran from May 2000 to January 2001, when Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was jailed for life; he was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009.