Lockerbie bombing: Detention of alleged bombmaker Abu Mas’ud is welcome but another key suspect, Abdullah Senussi, remains out of reach – Kenny MacAskill

Abu Mas’ud’s alleged involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing’s well known, the only surprise being his recent apprehension in the US.

A police officer walks near the wrecked nose section of the Pan-Am flight 103 in Lockerbie in December 1988 (Picture: PA)

At the outset, he was one of many sought. Top of the list was former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, followed by his evil henchman Abdullah Senussi. But Mas’ud was up there and far higher on the wanted list than either Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah.

However, the agreement to a trial in the Netherlands under Scots law was only brokered on several conditions. Firstly, the main man Gaddafi wasn’t to be in the frame. Secondly, it wouldn’t be in the USA or under American jurisdiction. Thirdly, only Megrahi and Fhimah would be offered up. In a nutshell, they were the highest-ranking suspects Libya would release and the lowest the UK/USA would accept.

But Mas’ud’s role was always suspected, hence why he remained on the wanted list. Megrahi and Fimmah were bit-part who didn’t have the skills to make the bomb that destroyed the plane and devastated the town below, but Mas’ud certainly did. My view is that he primed the bomb which was placed in a suitcase brought into Malta by Megrahi and handed over by him to Fhimah, Libyan Airlines’ head of security at Malta’s Luqa Airport, although he was later acquitted.

Indeed, as documented by Ken Dornstein, whose brother died in the atrocity, Mas’ud’s skills as a bombmaker seem longstanding with him also suspected of involvement in the 1986 bombing of La Belle discotheque in Berlin, when US servicemen were killed and suspicion fell on Libya and the Palestinian PFLP-GC group.

He was easily identifiable as he’s black rather than Arab but despite demands for him to be offered up for trial over Lockerbie, Gaddafi held firm. Access to interview him was denied and hence he remained a main suspect, but always out of reach.

Even when Gaddafi fell, Mas’ud was still untouchable. Warlords hated each other but all loathed the US and handing him over was unthinkable. Why it’s been done now, who knows – arms, money? However, whilst he’s been offered up, Senussi remains off limits, yet he’s also in a Libyan jail.

But it’s a further piece in the Lockerbie jigsaw and maybe offers some further closure for some.

Kenny MacAskill is Alba Party MP for East Lothian