FARGO (KFGO) – Thirty-two years to the day, federal investigators announced charges Monday against a Libyan man accused of being a bomb-maker in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people, including a young Fargo man.
The suspect, a former Libyan intelligence officer and an explosives expert, Abu Agela Masud Kheir Al-Marimi is not yet in U.S. custody and is currently in prison in Libya.
Steve Berrell, the 20-year-old son of Bob and Sally Berrell of Fargo, was part of a group of 35 students from New York’s Syracuse University who were returning from a trip to Europe when the aircraft exploded.
Bob Berrell told KFGO News, it was suspected for some time that the man now charged was one of those who were involved in the bombing. He said the death of their son is with them “every day” and he politely declined to comment further, a decision he and his wife made earlier.
ORIGINAL STORY:
WASHINGTON (REUTERS/KFGO) – The U-S has unsealed criminal charges against another suspect in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people, mostly Americans. The 32-year anniversary of the bombing is Monday.
Among the victims of the terrorist bombing was 20-year old Steve Berrrel, the son of Bob and Sally Berrell of Fargo. Steve Berrell was with a group of 35 students from New York’s Syracuse University who were returning from a trip to Europe, just four days before Christmas.
The case will mark the second time Attorney General William Barr has overseen charges in connection with the bombing.
During Barr’s first stint as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, the Justice Department indicted two Libyan Intelligence Agency operatives – Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah – for building a plastic bomb with a timer, hiding it inside a suitcase and planting it on an Air Malta flight.
The suitcase was eventually transferred to Pan Am Flight 103. “We will not rest until all those responsible are
brought to justice. We have no higher priority,” Barr said in 1991, at the time the indictment was unveiled. Parallel charges were also filed against the men in Scotland.
Since then, only one person has been brought to justice.
Megrahi was found guilty in Scotland of the Lockerbie bombing in 2001. He was freed in 2009 on compassionate release grounds and returned to Libya because he had terminal cancer. He died in 2012.
His release back to Libya at the time infuriated the Justice Department, which had the indictment against him pending and was still investigating the bombing.
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