Families have been told of a significant arrest 34 years after the biggest mass murder in British legal history that claimed 270 lives.
The accused bombmaker behind the explosion on board Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 has been taken into custody in the US.
All 259 on board were killed when the jumbo jet blew up over the town of Lockerbie, in Scotland.
Another 11 people died in the town when the fiery wreckage rained down and landed on their homes.
The Boeing 747 was bound for New York from London when the bomb detonated over the Scottish town.
It remains the deadliest terror attack to have taken place on British soil.
Scottish and US law enforcement officials confirmed on Monday (AEDT) the man accused of making the bomb was in US custody.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a Libyan, is the third man arrested over his alleged involvement and was taken into custody on Sunday (local time).
It came about two years after former US Attorney General Bill Barr first announced the US filed charges against him.
The BBC reports that the breakthrough means a second trial could happen under American, rather than Scottish, law.
Mas’ud is expected to make his initial court appearance in a federal court in Washington, DC.
Further details about the timing of the court hearing will be forthcoming, the spokesperson added.
The destruction caused by Pan Am Flight 103. Photo: Getty
The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing had been told the suspect was in US custody, a spokesperson for Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said.
“Scottish prosecutors and police, working with UK government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with al-Megrahi to justice.”
In 1991, two other Libyan intelligence operatives were charged in the bombing: Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah.
Convicted bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was eventually released on compassionate grounds. Photo: AAP
Megrahi was found guilty of the bombing and was jailed for life in 2001.
He was later released because he was suffering from cancer. He died in 2012.
Fhimah was acquitted of all charges, but Scottish prosecutors have maintained that Megrahi did not act alone.
In 2020, the US unsealed criminal charges against Mas’ud, a suspected third conspirator. American authorities said he had worked as a technical expert in building explosive devices.
