The Justice Department announced Sunday that Mas’ud had been taken into U.S. custody, and he faced the charges in court on Monday.The U.S. Justice Department on Sunday said a Libyan suspect, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, is now in custody for his alleged involvement in making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland. 

The bombing killed 270 people, including 259 people on board the plane and 11 on the ground. 

Citizens from 21 different countries were among the victims.

It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the most well-known instances of international terrorism to come before the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. 

Al-Marimi stands accused of building the bomb that two men, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, previously faced charges for sending in a portable cassette and radio player onto the airliner. Fhimah has since been acquitted, and Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison in 2001, but released on humanitarian grounds before his death. 

The U.S. charged Al-Marimi for his involvement in the bombing two years ago, following a breakthrough in the decades-long investigation. U.S. officials said they received a copy of an interview between Al-Marimi and Libyan law enforcement, during which he apparently admitted to building the bomb on behalf of the country's intelligence service, according to an FBI affidavit. 

The Justice Department did not confirm how Al-Marimi came into U.S. custody. Libyan media last month reported that he had been kidnapped by armed men on Nov. 16 from his home in Tripoli. In addition, former attorney general William Barr said in 2020 that the U.S. and Scotland would use “every feasible and appropriate means” to bring him to trial. 

Now Al-Marimi is expected to appear before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.