Despite refusal of Libyan authorities to re-open the Lockerbie file: Scottish judiciary announces detention of the Libyan citizen Abu Ajaila Massoud in the United States.

Tripoli, 11 December 2022 (Lana) The Scottish judiciary announced on Sunday that Libyan citizen Abu Ajaila Mohamed Massoud who disappeared in mysterious circumstances weeks ago in the capital Tripoli is now detained in the United States despite the unanimous rejection of all Libyan authorities to reopening of the case, considering it a file that has been closed years ago.

The United States charged Abu Ajaila Mohamed Massoud two years ago for making the bomb used in the bombing of a US passenger plane over the Scottish city of Lockerbie in 1988 and the Scottish Public Prosecution said that "the families of the victims of the Lockerbie attack learned that the suspect Abu Ajaila Mohamed Massoud is being held in the United States, and that prosecutors and Scottish police, in coordination with the UK government and their colleagues in the United States, will continue to investigate to bring those who participated with Al Megrahi in the case to justice. The House of Representatives had voted on a resolution rejecting attempts to reopen the Lockerbie case and said Libyans involved in reopening the case would be prosecuted on charges of high treason. The decision stipulated the prosecution of those involved in the arrest of the citizen Abu Ajaila Massoud Al-Marimi and to emphasize the invalidity of all the consequences of his detention. The House of Representatives had voted on a resolution rejecting attempts to reopen a case.

The decision stipulated the prosecution of those involved in the arrest of the citizen Abu Ajaila Massoud Al-Marimi and to emphasize the invalidity of all the consequences of his detention. For its part, the High Council of State refused to reopen the case file of Lockerbie, stressing that the file had been completely closed politically and legally according to the text of the agreement signed between the United States and Libya on August 14, 2008, and at the same time urged to clarify what it described as the «case of disappearance» of the Libyan citizen Abu Ajaila Massoud. The Council said in a statement after the announcement of the disappearance of Abu Ajaila Massoud Al-Marimi, that the reopening of the case file lacks any political or legal justifications, and that it will have no obligations nor any consequences to bear as a result of this procedure of entitlements towards the Libyan state, calling on the House of Representatives, the Presidency and the Attorney General to solidarity with him and take appropriate measures to end this tampering, as it described.

For its part, the Ministry of Justice of the Government of National Unity, commenting on the disappearance of "Al-Marimi", said that the "Lockerbie" file has been "completely closed legally and politically and cannot be raised again and cannot be returned" according to the text of the agreement concluded between the Libyan state and the United States on August 14, 2008" which was reinforced by Presidential Order signed by former U.S. President George W. Bush No. 13477 of October 31, 2008.

The Libyan National Security Adviser, Ibrahim Bouchenaf, warned against raising the Lockerbie issue again, calling on all patriots and political entities to line up to prevent this aggrevating the political conflict, considering that the Lockerbie case, if raised again and becomes the subject of a criminal investigation, will enter Libya into decades of abuse.

Al-Marimi's family announced his abduction in mid-November from his home in the Abu Salim area of the capital Tripoli by unknown gunmen. Al-Marimi was raised in the Lockerbie case in December 2020 when US Attorney General William Barr demanded his extradition on charges of making the bomb that blew up a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, killing all 259 people on board, in addition to 11 residents of the village. After that incident, a political crisis erupted between America and Libya, after Washington and London issued arrest warrants for two Libyan citizens suspected of being responsible for the bombing of the plane, Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Fahima, while the Libyan authorities refused at the time to extradite them.

This refusal prompted the Security Council to impose economic sanctions on Libya on April 15, 1992, including a flight ban to and from Libya, forcing Libya to reach a deal that includes holding the trial of the wanted Al Megrahi and "Fahima" in a third country, the Netherlands. On 31 January 2001, the long-sitting court convicted Al-Megrahi on grounds of circumstantial evidence and acquitted Al-Amin Fahima, prompting Britain and America to enter into negotiations with Libya that resulted in a settlement, whereby the latter would pay compensation to the families of the victims. In August 2008, a new page began in diplomatic relations between Libya and the United States after Libya paid a compensation, prompting the Scottish government to release on 20 August 2009 Abdelbaset Al Megrahi on humanitarian grounds as a cancer patient, before he died in Tripoli on 20 May 2012.

=Lana=