Why is Dbeibeh involved in the extradition of Abu Ujaila Massoud to Washington?
Crisis sparked by the disappearance of former Libyan intelligence officer Abu Ujaila Massoud. After his disappearance in Washington, he appeared after being detained in the Lockerbie bombing, amid accusations by the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh that he was behind his disappearance.
For their part, the Abu Ujaila family called on Libyans to take part in demonstrations to protest the unity government’s handover of Abu Ujaila to the United States.
Who is Abu Ujaila Massoud?
Abu Ujaila Massoud, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is accused of blowing up a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
His name resurfaced after the Dubai government announced in November 2021 that it was prepared to hand him over to the United States on charges of involvement in the bombing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie.
Abu Ujaila described Massoud as an explosives maker and allegedly linked to the main defendant in the case, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.
In December 2020, Massoud’s name was raised when U.S. Attorney General William Barr, at a press conference in Washington, accused a Libyan security officer, Abu Ujaila Massoud, of making the bomb that blew up Pan Am’s Boeing 747 over the small Scottish city on December 21, 1988, killing its 259 passengers and crew, including 190 Americans, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents. The US official then demanded his extradition.
Why is Abu Ujaila accused?
The Daily Mail newspaper revealed that the accusations against Abu Ujaila Massoud emerged through an investigation conducted by Ken Dornstein, the brother of one of the Lockerbie victims, who gave Massoud’s name to the FBI in 2015, after a long march in tracking down the man who was suspected of being a master bomb-maker in the regime of the late President Muammar Gaddafi.
Dbeibeh accused of treason
Meanwhile, a wide cross section of Libyans refuses to extradite Abu Ujaila and the charges made against him, especially since Dbeibeh deliberately classified the former Libyan intelligence officer as a terrorist.
For his part, Libyan Attorney General Al-Siddiq Al-Sour confirmed, last Wednesday, the beginning of the investigation in the Lockerbie case of the extradition of Abu Ujaila to the United States.
“We are working on uncovering the circumstances of the case,” the prosecutor said, noting that the extradition took place without the knowledge of the Libyan judiciary.
To protest against being labeled a terrorist
In an audio statement issued by one of their members, the Abu Ujaila family protested the description of Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh Abu Ujaila as a terrorist.
It called on the Libyans to go down to the squares in protest against the illegal extradition of a Libyan citizen to the United States.
This coincided with the demonstrations in several cities in Libya last Thursday, demanding the overthrow of the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, which has expired, after handing over Abu Ujaila Masoud to the United States for alleged involvement in the Lockerbie airliner bombing.
The demonstrators called on the Attorney General to find out the circumstances surrounding the extradition of Abu Ujaila, who is 80 years old, and demanded the end of the Dbeibeh government. They considered the incident a violation of state sovereignty and a collusion with foreign entities against a Libyan citizen.
