Defense cites new evidence on constitutional and ethical grounds
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of the District of Columbia postponed the proceedings on Monday, one day before jury selection was set to begin in Federal Court in Washington. Defense lawyers told the court that new evidence had emerged requiring investigation on what they described as “constitutional and ethical” grounds, prompting the request for the continuance.
The BBC said it had information that a new trial date has been set for January. That schedule would place the trial more than 20 months after Al-Marimi was originally due to stand trial.
It is the third time the proceedings have been pushed back. The first postponement was attributed to ill health. A second start date in April was pushed back after his lawyers requested more time to prepare their defense.
Al-Marimi has denied involvement in the December 1988 bombing of the London-to-New York flight. The explosion over the Scottish town of Lockerbie killed all 259 passengers and crew on board — most of them Americans — and another 11 people on the ground.
The U.S. Justice Department charged Al-Marimi in connection with the bombing in December 2020 and sought his extradition from Libya. He was taken into U.S. custody two years later, in December 2022.
U.S. prosecutors allege that Al-Marimi and others carried out the attack on orders from the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
If convicted, Al-Marimi would be only the second person to face justice over the bombing. Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of planting the bomb in 2001. He was freed after eight years on compassionate grounds following a terminal cancer diagnosis and died in 2012 still protesting his innocence.
Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, a station manager for Libyan Airlines, was prosecuted alongside al-Megrahi but was acquitted.