SCOTLAND-LOCKERBIE/MOHAMMED ABU EJAILA File of second Lockerbie suspect Mohammed Abu Ejaila

Record ID: 135261

  • Title: SCOTLAND-LOCKERBIE/MOHAMMED ABU EJAILA File of second Lockerbie suspect Mohammed Abu Ejaila
  • Date: 16th October 2015
  • Summary: TRIPOLI, LIBYA (FILE - JULY 28, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOHAMMED ABU EJAILA SITTING IN A CAGE IN COURT (LAST PERSON ON THE RIGHT IN THE BACK ROW)
  • Embargoed: 31st October 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA11TQHSTZ1VFC1JXEMN24H7RIX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: SHOT DATE HAS BEEN CORRECTED FOR SHOT #3
    Tripoli's government on Friday (October 16) named the two new Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie bombing investigation as Abdullah al-Senussi, the former spy chief of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a second man, Mohammed Abu Ejaila.
    File pictures of Mohammed Abu Ejaila show him sitting in court during the trial of Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif al-Islam on July 28, 2015 in Libya.
    Senussi is currently being held in a jail in Tripoli after he was sentenced for his role in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi.
    No details were immediately available on the second suspect in the 1988 airline bombing that killed 270 people. But one person familiar with the case said Ejaila may also be known as Mohammed Abouajela Masud, a known bomb maker.
    Jamal Zubia, director of the media office of the Tripoli government, sent a message to journalists confirming the names but saying the Libyan attorney general's office had not been officially informed about the two suspects.
    Scottish and U.S. investigators said on Thursday they had identified two new Libyan suspects in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, en route from London to New York.
    Scottish and U.S. authorities said they had informed Libya they wanted to send investigators to the North African country where rival governments and their armed backers are battling for control, four years after the revolt that ousted Gaddafi.
    In July, a Libyan court sentenced Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, and eight others including Senussi to death over war crimes including killings of protesters in 2011. They were sentenced to die by firing squad, though rights activists questioned the trial proceedings.
    In 2001, Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was jailed for life and remains the only person to have been convicted over the bombing.
    A second Libyan accused of involvement, Lamin Fhima, was tried with Megrahi before a panel of Scottish judges sitting at a special court in the Netherlands but was found not guilty.
    A Scottish Crown Office spokesman did not name the two new suspects, but said they are now suspected of being involved with Megrahi in carrying out the attack.
    Masud, the bomb maker, was named in the original charge sheet against Megrahi, according to a person familiar with the case.
    In 2003, former Libyan leader Gaddafi accepted his country's responsibility for the bombing and paid compensation to the victims' families, but he did not admit personally ordering the attack.
    Megrahi, who protested his innocence, died in Libya in 2012. He was released three years earlier by Scotland's government on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. His family and some relatives of the Scottish victims believe he was wrongly convicted.
    In December, Scotland's prosecutor said no new evidence had emerged to cast doubt on Megrahi's conviction but attempts to track down accomplices had been hampered by the violence in Libya since Gaddafi's fall.
    Sending investigators to Libya may be complicated. Most diplomats and foreign staff left the capital last year and closed their embassies after an armed faction called Libya Dawn took over the capital and set up its own government.
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