Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, a Libyan who was cleared in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing trial, has died at the age of 70, according to a Facebook post by Libyan Airlines. Fhimah was one of two Libyans tried in the Netherlands for the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people; his funeral is set to take place on Wednesday in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

Background of the Trial

The charges against Fhimah and his co-accused, Abdulbasset Al Megrahi, were first announced by Scotland and the United States in 1991 — After years of UN sanctions imposed on Libya, the two men were handed over to stand trial at a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. In 2001, three judges convicted Megrahi of mass murder and sentenced him to life in prison, but found Fhimah not guilty, and Megrahi was released in 2009 on compassionate grounds due to terminal cancer and died in 2012.

Controversy and New Evidence

Fhimah always denied any involvement in the bombing and was welcomed home to Libya by the country’s late dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. However, in 2022, the FBI revealed that Fhimah had been implicated again in the case through an alleged confession made by another Libyan, Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi, who is facing trial in the United States. According to the FBI, Al-Marimi told a Libyan police officer that he had taken part in a plot to bomb the plane along with Fhimah and Megrahi, when all three were members of the Libyan intelligence service. Al-Marimi has denied making the bomb that brought down the jumbo jet and claims the confession is false and was made under duress, according to the BBC.

Ongoing Legal Developments

Al-Marimi is now due to stand trial in Washington in January, after a federal court judge agreed to postpone the case for a third time; the delay, requested by the defence, followed the emergence of “newly discovered” evidence on the case, according to the BBC. The postponement was not connected to Fhimah’s reported death.

The Lockerbie bombing remains one of the most controversial and complex cases in modern history, While Megrahi was found guilty and served time, Fhimah was exonerated. The new developments involving Al-Marimi continue to fuel questions about who was truly responsible for the attack that killed 270 people.