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Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah is a Libyan man, an ex-employee of Libyan Arab Airlines, who was convicted for the hijacking and bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. It was on January 31, 2001, when Khalifah Fhimah was accused for the murder of 270 passengers.
His trial took place at Cam Zeist, Netherlands before a panel of Scottish judges. He was proven innocent, in light of evidence that Khalifah Fhimah was seen in Sweden at the time of the bombing. The other suspect, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was found guilty and sentenced to lifetime imprisonment, but released later.
On February 1, 2001, he returned to his home in Souk al-Jum'aa, Libya, and currently resides there with his wife and children. The story behind the bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103, which came to be known as the Lockerbie bombing, is documented in Peacock's series Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.
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Released on January 2, 2025, the series narrates a father's (Jim Swire) quest for justice, after his daughter (Flora) is killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.
What is the story of Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah?
It was back on December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was scheduled to take off from Detroit and reach Frankfurt via two stopovers in London and New York City.
However, while the flight was flying over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, the bomb set off mid-air, killing all of its crew and passengers.
Large pieces of the aircraft fell from the sky, injuring and killing civilians on the street. This incident resulted in the death of 270 people in total and was declared to be a terrorist attack.
The now-defunct Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, in collaboration with the FBI, headed the investigation, and two Libyan men became the prime suspects.
Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah was the person interrogated by the Scottish government along with Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
According to The Cinemaholic, the prime two suspects were taken into custody by British and American investigators on November 14, 1991.
Khalifah Fhimah used to work as a station manager at the Luqa Airport, Malta. He headed the operations for Libyan Arab Airlines, which became the prime reason for his coming into the radar.
It was on April 5, 1999, when the Libyan government came to an agreement with the British authorities, and both Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah and Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, were sent to the Netherlands for prosecution.
As per the Lockerbie Verdict article, published on January 31, 2001, the two men were presented before the judges from the Scottish Court, at Camp Zeist, Netherlands.
Both of them were charged with counts of 270 murders, along with the fatalities. However, Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah could not be found responsible for the bombing because, on December 21, 1988, he was not working at the airport in Malta.
Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah was accused of possessing an orange-colored bomb suit, by his airport co-worker Abdul Majid Giaka, who secretly worked for the CIA.
However, evidence proved that at the time of the bombing, Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah was seen working in Sweden, which proved his innocence.
However, as per Cinemaholic, two more suspicions were raised against him by the opposition. One claimed that six days before the bombing, Khalifah Fhimah wrote in his journal that he needed to get Air Malta tags for Megrahi.
It was claimed that the bomb travelled from an Air Malta flight, before getting transferred to Pan-Am Flight 103. The opposition also claimed that Khalifah Fhimah kept his airport security pass with him, even when he was not on work duty.
He clarified that he had been using his expired ID card for other purposes, and his peers knew about it.
The opposition did not have enough evidence to back up their claims, hence, on January 31, 2001, Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, court declared not guilty. However, Abdelbaset al-Megrah, who worked as the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, was found guilty.
He was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment but was released by the Scottish Government on August 20, 2009.
As per a BBC News article, published on May 20, 2012, it was on August 10, 2009, when doctors detected that he had terminal prostate cancer. It was on November 2, 2009, when he was released and went back to Libya, in the capital city of Tripoli.
Abdelbaset al-Megrah succumbed to the cancer and died on May 20, 2012.
What happened to Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah after he was proven innocent?
As per Cinemaholic, Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah was released from the Scottish government, after he was proven not guilty for the bombing. He went back to Libya, to settle back with his wife and children at his home in Souq al Jum’aa, the residential district near Tripoli.
The Libyan leader back then, Colonel Gaddafi, accepted responsibility for the bombing and paid over a billion dollars to the victims' families.
When Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah reached the airport, he was welcomed by Colonel Gaddafi. The Colonel declared nationwide that Khalifah Fhimah was completely innocent. However, the accusations imposed upon him took a grave toll on his reputation.
Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah lost his travel agency in Malta and had to sell his farm to fend for the family.
He claimed that the Libyan government did not provide any compensation for his loss, and revealed that he was one of the victims of Gadaffi's rule.
As per the BBC News article, in 2011 during the First Libyan Civil War, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Libya's former Minister of Justice claimed that Colonel Gaddafi had personally ordered the bombing attack.
The opposition tried to put Khalifah Fhimah in front of the jury again. However, he has remained off the radar ever since proven innocent, leading a quiet life away from the news and media.
To know about the entire story behind the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, watch Peacock's series Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.
