(Reuters) – Here is a timeline of main events since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which was back in the news this week with the capture of a Libyan intelligence operative suspected of making the bomb that killed 270 people:
* On Dec. 21, 1988, the flight to New York blows up over Scotland minutes after takeoff from London. The bombing kills all 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 jumbo jet and 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie.
* On Jan. 31, 2001, a three-judge Scottish court at a former U.S. base in the Netherlands finds Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi guilty while acquitting another agent, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah. The trial follows years of wrangling between Libya, Britain and the United States.
* On Aug. 15, 2003, Libya, in a letter to the United Nations, accepts responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. Libya pays more than $2 billion in compensation. On Sept. 12, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution lifting sanctions imposed on Libya over the bombing.
* On Aug. 20, 2009, the Scottish government releases Megrahi after his lawyer says the prisoner has been diagnosed with advanced stage prostate cancer. He returns home to Libya. On May 20, 2012, Megrahi, then 60 years old, dies in Tripoli.
* On Dec. 11, 2022, Scottish and U.S. law enforcement officials announce that Mas’ud is in U.S. custody. The next day he is due to appear in a federal court in Washington, D.C.
(Compiled by Howard Goller; Editing by Mark Porter)
