2026-08-24T20:02:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
美国一名联邦法官周一推迟了对一名前利比亚情报官员的美国庭审，该官员被控策划了1988年苏格兰洛克比上空的泛美航空103号班机爆炸案。法官表示，辩方律师需要对这起近40年旧案中发现的新证据进行核查。
阿布·阿吉拉·穆罕默德·马苏德·凯尔·阿尔-马里米在美国被控制作了击落客机的炸弹，造成270人死亡，其中大多数是美国人。原定于周三开始的华盛顿特区联邦审判陪审团遴选工作将被推迟，这将是1988年12月21日爆炸案首次在美国本土进行庭审。
美国地区法官达布尼·弗里德里希的裁决并未具体说明新发现证据的性质。
阿尔-马里米的律师表示，检方已于周六向他们披露了这项新证据，并补充称，他们“根据宪法和职业道德义务，有责任对这一情况展开调查”。联邦公设辩护人助理、辩方律师劳拉·克尼希在回应美联社问询时拒绝进一步透露细节。
法官安排于9月1日在华盛顿举行听证会，讨论案件进展情况。弗里德里希在简短的裁决中指出，案件复杂性、新发现的证据以及“辩方需要确定最佳辩护策略”是推迟庭审的理由。
泛美航空103号班机从伦敦希思罗机场起飞38分钟后，在洛克比上空31000英尺处，位于前货舱的炸弹发生爆炸。该航班原定飞往纽约约翰·肯尼迪国际机场。
爆炸造成机上259名乘客和机组人员全部遇难，另有11名洛克比地面居民身亡，失事残骸摧毁了一整个城市街区。遇难者来自21个国家，其中包括190名美国人以及43名英国人。机上乘客中有35名雪城大学学生，他们在海外学期结束后正准备返家。
美国联邦调查局表示，在9·11事件之前，泛美航空103号班机爆炸案“是世界上最致命的航空恐怖行为之一，也是该机构调查过的规模最大、最复杂的国际恐怖主义行动之一”。
泛美航空103号班机遇难者家属非营利组织董事会主席卡拉·韦普茨表示，她的组织尚未收到关于导致庭审延期的新证据的任何细节。韦普茨的兄弟理查德·莫内蒂正是遇难的雪城大学学生之一。
她称此次庭审延期令人震惊，并指出部分遇难者家属已经收拾好行李准备前往庭审现场。
“与此同时，近38年来我们一直在寻求事件真相，”韦普茨说，“如果这就是此次延期的原因，那么这是一件好事，这次延期是值得的……听到所有事实真相至关重要。”
检方指控阿尔-马里米等人按照利比亚领导人穆阿迈尔·卡扎菲的指示实施了爆炸案，卡扎菲在2011年内战中被推翻并击毙。
现年70多岁的阿尔-马里米被控两项造成人员死亡的航空器破坏罪。如果罪名成立，他最高将面临终身监禁。2023年2月，公设辩护人惠特尼·明特在华盛顿特区美国地区法院代表他进行了无罪答辩。
2000年，另外两名利比亚情报特工在荷兰前美国军事基地由苏格兰法官组成的法庭接受审判。法庭宣判一名官员有罪，另一名无罪，但炸弹制造者的真实身份多年来一直是个谜。
根据检方说法，阿尔-马里米大约在1973年至2011年间作为爆炸专家为利比亚情报部门工作，军衔升至上校，并与利比亚和突尼斯有联系。
检方认为，他曾将装有炸弹的行李箱带到马耳他的一个机场，并交给同谋，用于搭乘飞往德国法兰克福的航班。调查人员表示，该行李箱从法兰克福转机至伦敦，随后被装上泛美航空103号班机。
阿尔-马里米最早于2020年被起诉，后于2022年12月正式被起诉，之后被移交给美国警方羁押。
Judge postpones U.S. trial for Libyan man accused in deadly 1988 Lockerbie bombing, citing new evidence
2026-08-24T20:02:00-0400 / CBS/AP
A federal judge on Monday postponed a trial in the United States for a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, citing the discovery of new evidence that defense attorneys want to examine in the nearly 40-year-old case.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is charged in the U.S. with making the bomb that downed the airplane, killing 270 people, most of them Americans. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday for his federal trial in Washington, D.C. — the first trial in the U.S. for the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich’s order didn’t specify the nature of the newly discovered evidence.
Al-Marimi’s lawyers say prosecutors disclosed the new evidence to them on Saturday and added that their “constitutional and ethical obligations require the defense to investigate this development.” Defense attorney Laura Koenig, an assistant federal public defender, declined to elaborate in response to an Associated Press inquiry.
The judge scheduled a Sept. 1 hearing in Washington to discuss the status of the case. Friedrich’s brief order cited the complex nature of the case, the newly discovered evidence and “the need for the defense to determine how best to defend this case” as reasons to postpone the trial.
This image shows Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, who is in custody at the Alexandria Adult Detention Center, Dec. 12, 2022. Alexandria Sheriff’s Office via AP
Flight 103 was 31,000 feet over Lockerbie when a bomb in the plane’s forward cargo area exploded 38 minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport. The flight was bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
The blast killed all 259 passengers and crew members and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, where the wreckage destroyed an entire city block. Citizens of 21 countries were killed, including 190 Americans and 43 from the United Kingdom. The passengers included 35 Syracuse University students returning home from a semester abroad.
The FBI says that, prior to 9/11, the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing “was one of the world’s most lethal acts of air terrorism and one of the largest and most complex acts of international terrorism ever investigated” by the agency.
Kara Weipz, board president of the nonprofitVictims of Pan Am Flight 103, said her organization had received no details about the new evidence that prompted the trial delay. Weipz’s brother, Richard Monetti, was among the Syracuse students killed.
She called the delay a shock and noted that some victims’ relatives were already packing to head to the trial.
“At the same time, for almost 38 years we’ve been seeking the truth of what happened,” Weipz said. “If that’s what this is, then that’s a good thing, and this delay is worth it. … It’s important to hear all the facts.”
Prosecutors allege Al-Marimi and others carried out the bombing at the direction of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who was ousted and killed during a 2011 civil war.
Al-Marimi, now in his mid-70s, is charged with two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted. In February 2023, public defender Whitney Minter entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Two other Libyan intelligence agents were tried by a panel of Scottish judges on a former U.S. military base in the Netherlands in 2000. The tribunal convicted one official and acquitted the other, but the bombmaker’s possible identity remained a mystery for years.
According to prosecutors, Al-Marimi worked for the Libyan intelligence service as an explosives expert from approximately 1973 to 2011, rising to the rank of colonel, and had ties to Libya and Tunisia.
Prosecutors believe he brought a suitcase containing a bomb to an airport in Malta and gave it to co-conspirators for a flight to Frankfurt, Germany. The suitcase traveled from Frankfurt to London, where it was loaded onto Flight 103, according to investigators.
Al-Marimi was first charged in 2020 and later indicted in December 2022 before he was transferred to U.S. custody.
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