Lockerbie bombing trial postponed days before it was due to start - BBC

Lawyers for defendant Abu Agila Mohammad Kheir Al-Marimi say "newly discovered evidence," previously unknown to both the defense and federal prosecutors, emerged on Friday, August 21. The BBC reports a new start date has been set for January next year. Al-Marimi has denied building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people.

The case has dragged on for decades. The plane fell over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing everyone aboard and 11 people on the ground in what remains one of the deadliest terror attacks in history. Al-Marimi's trial represents one of the last chances for families of the victims to see a conviction in a US courtroom.

The postponement means those families will wait at least several more months for a verdict, with no guarantee the new evidence will move the case toward resolution rather than further delay.

Three postponements into a trial that began building more than three decades ago, the question of whether anyone will ever be fully held accountable in an American court for 270 deaths remains open.