The man accused of being the bombmaker in the Lockerbie terrorist attack is now in US custody, authorities in Scotland have said.

Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi was said to be the "third conspirator" behind the downing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of mass murder in 2001.

A spokesman for the Crown Office said: "The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi ('Mas'ud' or 'Masoud') is in US custody.

"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."

The bombing of Pan Am flight 103, travelling from London to New York on December 21 1988, killed 270 people in Britain's largest terrorist attack.

In 2020, Mas'ud was charged by the US Attorney General William Barr with being the third person involved in the terrorist attack.

At the time, he was said to be in Libyan custody and Mr Barr said US authorities would work "arm in arm" with their Scottish counterparts.

Mr Barr said: "Let there be no mistake, no amount of time or distance will stop the US and our Scottish partners from pursuing justice in this case."

Megrahi was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds while terminally ill with cancer, and died in Libya in 2012.

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In January 2021, his family lost an appeal against his conviction at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Last month we told how the bombing is to be retold in a "definitive" new three-part documentary series produced by Louis Theroux's production company.

Commissioned by Sky, the acclaimed documentary maker's company will examine the deadliest terrorist attack in Britain.

Lockerbie will tell the story of the Pan Am flight 103 bombing where 270 died on the evening of December 21, 1988.

It will include interviews with individuals closely linked to the disaster and the lengthy investigation which followed the tragedy.

The filmmakers will have access to families of the victims, investigators, intel officers and other key figures who have not spoken until now.

Sky says the series will “examine unanswered questions to provide a definitive account of the bombing and its aftermath and, ultimately, who was responsible.”

Theroux will not present the documentary but it will be made by his production company Mindhouse, which was founded with his producer wife Nancy Strang and film maker Aaron Fellows.

The 52-year-old said Lockerbie was "exactly the sort of project I wanted us to get involved with when we set up.

“Our values are about storytelling and being audience-friendly, and I’m not ashamed to say we want to reach a really wide audience.”

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Series director John Dower said: "I vividly remember Lockerbie from my teenage years of growing up in a Scottish household, but revisiting the event over 30 years later realised how little I knew about the actual event and the way it continues to reverberate down the years.”

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