Main events since the Lockerbie bombing

Abu Agila Masud, the Libyan suspected of making the bomb that blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, is the first person charged on U.S. soil in connection with the 1988 attack


Dec 21, 1988: Bombing of flight from London to New York kills all 259 people on Boeing 747 and 11 residents in Scottish town of Lockerbie

Nov 1991
U.S. and British investigators indict Abdel Baset Ali Al Megrahi (left) and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah on 270 counts of murder. Suspects are accused of being Libyan intelligence agents

Apr 1992: UN Security Council imposes sanctions on Libya for refusal to hand over suspects

Apr 1999: Libya hands over suspects. UN sanctions suspended

Jan 2001: Al Megrahi convicted of planting bomb by Scottish court in the Netherlands and jailed for minimum of 27 years. Fhimah is acquitted

2003: Libya accepts responsibility for bombing and agrees to pay more than $2 billion in compensation to families of those killed

Aug 2009: Al Megrahi is released from prison on compassionate grounds due to terminal cancer – he returns home to Libya, where he dies, aged 60, in May 2012

Dec 2020
U.S. announces it has filed charges against Abu Agila Masud (right) – Libyan suspected of making bomb that destroyed Pan Am flight 103

Dec 11, 2022: Scottish and U.S. law enforcement officials announce that Masud is in U.S. custody

Dec 12: Masud appears before federal court in Washington DC

Prosecutors say Masud, 71, will not face death penalty but could face life imprisonment if convicted


Sources: BBC, Reuters 
Pictures: Getty Images, Newscom 
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