The trial of a Libyan man over the Lockerbie bombing has been postponed for a third time, after new evidence on the 37-year-old case came to light three days ago.
Jury selection was due to get under way in Washington DC on Wednesday but the BBC understands a new start date has been set for January next year.
Lawyers acting for Abu Agila Mohammad Kheir Al-Marimi said “newly discovered evidence” previously unknown to the defence and prosecutors from the US government emerged on Friday 21 August.
Al-Marimi has denied building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988, killing 270 people.
His lawyers told the court: “Constitutional and ethical obligations require the defence to investigate this development.”
They said they met Al-Marimi on Sunday and he agreed that they should ask for the postponement.
The trial judge, Dabney Friedrich, has agreed that the start date should be set aside, underlining the potential importance of the new evidence.
She would have been extremely reluctant to allow an 11th hour postponement after months of preparation and marathon pre-trial legal battles.
For the relatives of those who died and Al-Marimi himself, this latest delay means a verdict might not come until next spring.
It is yet another stunning development in a saga that has witnessed countless twists and turns over nearly four decades.
Pan Am 103 was flying from Heathrow to New York when the bomb exploded in its forward hold, breaking the plane apart at 31,000 feet.
All 259 passengers and crew on board were killed. Another 11 people died in Lockerbie when the wreckage fell on their homes.
Of the victims, 190 were American and 43 from the UK.
Nearly four decades later, the bombing remains the worst terror attack and mass murder in British history.
