Libyan who was cleared after Lockerbie bombing trial dies aged 70
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, the Libyan man acquitted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, has died aged 70. His death matters because recent evidence had revived the possibility of a fresh prosecution over the attack on Pan Am Flight 103, which killed all 259 people aboard and 11 people on the ground.
Fhimah stood trial alongside Abdulbasset Al Megrahi before a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands after Libya handed the pair over following years of UN sanctions. In 2001, Megrahi was convicted and jailed for life while Fhimah was cleared; he consistently denied involvement. In 2022, the FBI said an alleged confession by Libyan suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi implicated Fhimah again, but Al-Marimi denies the accusation and says the confession was coerced; his US trial is due in January.
- Lockerbie acquitted man Al Amin Fhimah dies aged 70
- New evidence had raised prospects of another prosecution
- A separate Libyan suspect faces trial in Washington
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Fhimah was one of two Libyan intelligence officers accused over the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 people. He and Abdulbasset Al Megrahi were eventually handed over for a special trial held under Scottish law in the Netherlands, after years of international sanctions on Libya. In 2001 judges acquitted Fhimah while convicting Megrahi, who was found guilty of mass murder and later died in 2012.
Fhimah always maintained his innocence and returned to Libya, where he was welcomed by the country's then leader, Colonel Gaddafi. In 2022 American investigators said a third man, now facing trial in the United States, had implicated Fhimah again, prompting speculation about whether he might be prosecuted a second time, though this would have been legally complicated given his earlier acquittal.
The case remains one of the deadliest attacks on civil aviation and has long been a source of dispute over who was truly responsible and whether justice was fully served.
Full account
Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, the Libyan man who was acquitted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, has died at the age of 70. His death was confirmed by his former employer, Libyan Airlines, in a social media statement offering condolences to his family, colleagues and loved ones. Fhimah had been tried alongside fellow Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi over the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded above the Scottish town of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, killing all 259 people aboard and a further 11 on the ground. While a panel of three Scottish judges, sitting at a specially convened court in the Netherlands, convicted Megrahi of 270 counts of murder in 2001, Fhimah was found not guilty and walked free.
At the time of the bombing, Fhimah had worked for years as a station manager for Libyan Airlines at Luqa Airport in Malta, though he had left the post shortly before the attack. He and Megrahi were indicted on murder charges by Scotland and the United States in 1991, but Libya refused for eight years to surrender either man, holding them under arrest in Tripoli instead while UN sanctions were imposed on the country. Libya eventually relented in 1999, allowing the pair to be handed to Scottish authorities and tried at a court set up on the site of a disused US Air Force base in the Netherlands.
Prosecutors had argued that a suitcase bomb was checked onto an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt before being transferred onto the Pan Am aircraft, and they pointed to entries in Fhimah's diary referring to obtaining Air Malta luggage tags for Megrahi, as well as testimony from Abdul Majid Giaka, a Libyan intelligence officer who had also worked as a CIA informant. However, judges found this evidence fell short: Giaka's account of having been shown orange TNT by Fhimah did not fit with the fact that the aircraft had actually been destroyed by Semtex plastic explosive, and prosecutors could not establish that the luggage-tag entry proved Fhimah had helped smuggle the bomb aboard or knew of any plot. Fhimah did not testify in his own defence, and was acquitted partly on the strength of evidence placing him in Sweden at the time of the bombing.
Following his acquittal, Fhimah returned to Libya, where he was received by the country's then leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and consistently maintained his innocence. Megrahi, who was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds after a terminal cancer diagnosis, died in Tripoli in 2012. The case resurfaced in 2022, when the FBI disclosed an alleged confession from a third Libyan, Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir al-Marimi, who is said to have told a Libyan police officer that he, Fhimah and Megrahi had all been involved in the bombing as members of Libyan intelligence; al-Marimi, who faces trial in the US, denies building the bomb and says the confession was coerced. This fresh evidence had fuelled speculation that Fhimah could be retried under Scotland's double jeopardy laws, though such a prosecution was seen as legally and politically fraught given his earlier acquittal. Funeral prayers for Fhimah were expected to be held in Tripoli, with one report indicating this would take place on the day of the announcement and another specifying a funeral on the Wednesday.
Where outlets differ
The BBC account leads on the still-live legal implications of Fhimah's death — the 2022 FBI disclosure of Abu Agila Masud's alleged confession, the outstanding 1991 US indictment, and the mechanics of Scotland's Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011 — including BBC reporting that prosecutors would have considered fresh action against Fhimah had Masud been convicted.
The second source (the Daily Mail/MailOnline) gives far more detail on the original trial evidence itself: Fhimah's diary entries, the double agent Abdul Majid Giaka's testimony, the TNT-versus-Semtex discrepancy, and the Sweden alibi that helped secure his acquittal.
The sources give slightly different timings/details for the funeral — one says prayers were expected the same day in Tripoli, the other specifies Wednesday — and differ on naming, with one source noting Fhimah was also known as 'Lamin' and detailing his exact airport role (station manager at Luqa Airport) more precisely.
One source quotes the Libyan Airlines Facebook statement directly, while the other paraphrases it more briefly.