Lockerbie victim's father believes truth is too well hidden

Rev Mosey says 'great efforts' have been made to conceal the facts

The remnants of a Pan Am commercial aircraft lie in a field in Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. AFP

Local residents look at one of the four engines of the Pan Am jet on a street in Lockerbie. AFP

The Boeing 747 'Clipper Maid of the Seas, which was flying from London to New York, was destroyed when a bomb was detonated in its forward cargo hold. AFP

The bombing of the jumbo jet killed all 259 people on board and another 11 people on the ground. AFP

Police and investigators look at what remains of the nose of Pan Am Flight 103 in a field in Lockerbie in December 1988. AP

The nose section of the crashed Boeing 747. AP

Houses destroyed by the downed jet. Getty

The bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack to have taken place in the UK. Getty

A memorial to those killed in the 1988 bombing in Lockerbie. Reuters

Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, second from left, a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103, has been taken into US custody. He was charged by the US two years ago in connection with the Lockerbie bombing. Reuters

Some of the destruction caused by Pan Am Flight 103 after it crashed. Getty

Investigators reconstructed parts of the jet and proved a bomb caused the crash. Getty

Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, the only person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, was released early from prison after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died in May 2012. Many have maintained that Al Megrahi was innocent.

The father of one of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing believes the truth will never be revealed.

Reverend John Mosey's daughter Helga was only 19 when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town, killing her and 269 others in 1988.

A former Libyan intelligence agent accused of making the bomb that blew up the jet appeared in a US court on Monday to face charges for Britain's deadliest terrorist attack.

Libyan citizen Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, 71, who allegedly worked as an intelligence operative for the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi between 1973 and 2011, faces three counts related to the Lockerbie bombing.

Rev Mosey is not convinced the truth will ever be revealed.

“I think the truth is well hidden, it seems pretty clear to me that there's somebody somewhere that doesn't want the truth to come out,” he told said.

“Great efforts have been made to obfuscate and to hide the truth in different ways. So I doubt if the truth will come out, certainly in my lifetime.”

However, former US attorney general Bill Barr has vowed to find those responsible.

“No amount of time or distance will stop the United States and our Scottish partners from pursuing justice,” he said. "It's a long, winding road."

On Monday, federal prosecutors said they did not intend to seek the death penalty against the accused but said he could face life in prison if convicted of “destruction of an aircraft resulting in death” and two related charges.

The judge presiding over the hearing in a US District Court in Washington has ordered him to be held without bond until a detention hearing on December 27.

Scottish prosecutors announced on Sunday that Mr Masud was in American hands, but officials have not provided any details on how he had been transferred to US custody.

Current US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the arrest was “an important step forward in our mission to honour the victims and pursue justice on behalf of their loved ones”.

“American and Scottish law enforcement have worked tirelessly to identify, find and bring to justice the perpetrators of this horrific attack,” he said.

It is alleged Mr Masud confessed in a 2012 interview with a Libyan law enforcement officer to assembling the bomb that blew up the plane, according to an FBI affidavit.

Only one person has been convicted for the bombing.

The New York-bound aircraft was blown up 38 minutes after it took off from London, sending the main fuselage plunging to the ground over the town of Lockerbie and spreading debris over a vast area.

The bombing on December 21, 1988, killed all 259 people on board, including 190 Americans, and 11 others on the ground.

Two alleged Libyan intelligence operatives — Abdelbaset Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah — were charged with the bombing and tried by a Scottish court in the Netherlands.

Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001 while Mr Fhimah was acquitted.

Megrahi died in Libya in 2012, always maintaining his innocence.

His family lodged a bid for a posthumous appeal to clear his name in 2017 but Scotland's High Court upheld his conviction last year.