Lockerbie bombing trial postponed days before it was due to start

Image source, ReutersImage caption, Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down on 21 December 1988ByScotland home affairs correspondentThe trial of a Libyan man over the Lockerbie bombing has been postponed for a third time, after new evidence on the 37-year-old case came to light three days ago.Jury selection was due to get under way in Washington DC on Wednesday but the BBC understands a new start date has been set for January next year.Lawyers acting for Abu Agila Mohammad Kheir Al-Marimi said "newly discovered evidence" previously unknown to the defence and prosecutors from the US government emerged on Friday 21 August.Al-Marimi has denied building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people.His lawyers told the court: "Constitutional and ethical obligations require the defence to investigate this development."They said they met Al-Marimi on Sunday and he agreed that they should ask for the postponement.Image source, ReutersImage caption, Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi has been in custody since December 2022The trial judge, Dabney Friedrich, has agreed that the start date should be set aside, underlining the potential importance of the new evide...