Almost 34 years after an international act of terrorism killed 259 people aboard Pan Am flight 103, a Libyan man suspected in the bombing is now in U.S. custody. It's a bittersweet day for families of the victims who will never see their loved ones again, but for some it represents a step toward justice.
The explosion went off on the transatlantic flight over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. One hundred and ninety Americans were killed. Eleven people on the ground also died.
Rabbi Stephanie Bernstein is a Bethesda resident whose husband, Mike Bernstein, was among those on board.
We're making it easier for you to find stories that matter with our new newsletter — The 4Front. Sign up here and get news that is important for you to your inbox.
“My husband was a [Department of Justice] employee on his way home from a work trip,” she said.
The ensuing decades have not erased the personal toll on her or others who lost loved ones.
“There’s been a hole in our lives, because my husband wasn’t there to see his children grow up. They were quite young at the time he was killed. They were seven and a half and four,” Bernstein said.
But the passage of time has not gone without progress toward justice. That’s the context surrounding the arrest of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb.
“This shows that our government has a long memory and that it’s going to hold people accountable for these kinds of heinous acts,” Bernstein said.
Charges were actually brought against Mas'ud in 2020, while he was already in Libyan custody following the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
He’d since been released in Libya, but was reportedly kidnapped from his home by armed militia in the country last month and turned over to U.S. authorities.
In 2001, a Libyan intelligence officer named Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died in 2012, after being released three years early because of terminal cancer.
A third Libyan, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was also arrested, but acquitted in 2021.
The victims on Pan Am flight 103 hailed from 21 different countries.
“They were families, members of the military. Some entire families were killed,” Bernstein said.
Nicholas Vrenios was a D.C. native and one of 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad when the plane was blown up less than an hour after take off. He was just 20 years old.
His mother, Elizabeth, holds her son's memory in her heart.
"This has been 34 years in the making. Really amazing news, that we are finally finding some truth," she said. "I think closure is for many people, but it's not for me. I don't need this to feel closure. I've already made my peace with the event."
Nicholas Vrenios' brother, Chris, said he hopes the arrest prevents future attacks, but it doesn't change how he feels.
"No conviction or anything like that will change the course of events," he said. "I don't feel that there ever will be closure, for me personally in this, because it doesn't bring my brother back... We can only imagine the potential of so many of those people and what they may have accomplished in their lifetime."
Clarence Greenwood, a musician and songwriter who goes by Citizen Cope, is a childhood friend of Nicholas Vrenios. He immortalized his friend in a song with a simple mention of Vrenios’ initials, “NAV.” The reference was sublime, meaningful and spiritual to Greenwood.
“This was an amazing young man with incredible potential,” Greenwood said. “People always ask me, ‘What does NAV stand for?' Sometimes I’ll let them in on the secret. But somehow, Nick’s spirit has been in that song, kind of like he is.”
Kara Weipz's brother, Rick Monetti, was another one of the Syracuse students killed in the terrorist attack.
"My parents have known their grandson longer than they knew their son, and that's not the way life should be," she said.
In 11 days, families and friends of the victims will gather at Arlington Cemetery for an annual observance at a memorial to the victims held on the anniversary of their deaths.
“It will have extra meaning this year because we now have this man in custody,” Bernstein said.
Though he is the third Libyan intelligence official charged in the U.S. in connection with the attack, Mas'ud would be the first to appear in an American courtroom for prosecution.
The Justice Department said he would appear soon in a federal court in D.C., where he faces two criminal counts related to the explosion.
