Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, a Libyan national who was acquitted in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, has died at age 70. According to an announcement by Libyan Airlines on social media, Fhimah’s funeral is scheduled to take place on Wednesday in Tripoli, Libya’s capital.
Fhimah was one of two Libyan men charged with involvement in the December 1988 attack on the American airliner, which resulted in 270 deaths. He stood trial alongside Abdulbasset Al Megrahi at a Scottish court convened in the Netherlands following years of United Nations sanctions on Libya. In 2001, three judges found Fhimah not guilty, while Megrahi was convicted of mass murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Fhimah consistently maintained his innocence and was received as a returnee by Libya’s former leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Megrahi died from cancer in 2012 after being released on compassionate grounds by Scottish authorities.
Despite his acquittal, developments emerged that complicated Fhimah’s legal status. In 2022, the FBI disclosed that another Libyan defendant, Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi, had allegedly confessed to participating in a conspiracy to bomb the aircraft involving both Fhimah and Megrahi while all three served in Libyan intelligence. Al-Marimi has since denied crafting the explosive device and contested the authenticity of the alleged confession, claiming it was coerced.
The emergence of this new evidence and additional materials from Libya raised questions about potential renewed prosecution efforts. Under Scottish law provisions allowing retrial when substantial new evidence surfaces, authorities reportedly considered whether to pursue fresh charges against Fhimah contingent upon Al-Marimi’s conviction in United States federal court. Such proceedings would have faced considerable legal and political obstacles given Fhimah’s 2001 acquittal. Al-Marimi’s trial in Washington is currently scheduled to commence in January, following a third postponement agreed to by the court to accommodate newly discovered evidence.
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