US to announce new charges over Lockerbie bombing

Pan Am flight exploded over Scottish town killing 270 people in 1988

A total of 270 people died in the 1988 bombing (AP1988)

The US is expected to bring new charges against a Libyan man suspected of being involved in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.  

The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people, spurred global investigations and produced sanctions against Libya, which ultimately surrendered two intelligence officials for prosecution before a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands.  

The announcement of a prosecution against an additional individual would carry personal significance for outgoing US attorney general William Barr who held the same job when the Justice Department revealed criminal charges against the two Libyans nearly 30 years ago.  

Monday will mark the 32nd anniversary of the bombing.  

Announcing the charges during a 1991 press conference, Mr Barr said: “This investigation is by no means over. It continues unabated.  

“We will not rest until all those responsible are brought to justice. We have no higher priority.”  

The head of the Justice Department's criminal division at the time was Robert Mueller, who went on to serve as FBI director and as special counsel in charge of the investigation into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.  

Libya refused to extradite the men to the US but ultimately agreed to a deal to put them on trial in the Netherlands.  

News of the expected criminal case was first reported by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.  

A person familiar with the US Justice Department's plan confirmed it to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.  

The New York-bound flight exploded over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, less than an hour after take-off from London on 21 December 1988.  

A policeman walks away from the damaged cockpit of the 747 Pan Am airliner that exploded and crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland (AFP via Getty Images)

Among the Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad.  

The attack, caused by a bomb packed into a suitcase, killed 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.  

In 1992, the UN Security Council imposed arms sales and air travel sanctions against Libya to prod Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, the country's leader, into surrendering the two suspects.  

The sanctions were later lifted after Libya agreed to a $2.7bn compensation deal with the victims' families.  

One man - former Libyan intelligence official Abdel Baset al-Megrahi - was convicted of the bombing, and a second Libyan suspect was acquitted of all charges.  

Al-Megrahi was given a life sentence, but Scottish authorities released him on humanitarian grounds in 2009 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He later died in Tripoli.

Additional reporting by agencies