What to know: US court hearing held for alleged Lockerbie bombmaker

A United States judge has scheduled a hearing in Washington, DC, to discuss the case against a former Libyan intelligence official accused of participating in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, an attack on a commercial aeroplane that killed everyone on board.

The case concerns Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, who reportedly worked for Libya’s external security organisation at the time of the bombing.

Federal prosecutors have accused Mas’ud of delivering the bomb that was later loaded onto Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988.

His trial is expected to be the first held in the US for the Lockerbie bombing. Hundreds of people, many of them Americans, were killed in the explosion.

A court hearing is currently scheduled for Tuesday, but the trial has long been delayed.

Jury selection was set to begin last week. But US District Judge Dabney Friedrich unexpectedly postponed the trial, citing the discovery of new evidence. The delay is designed to give Mas’ud’s defence team time to review the new material.

It is yet another stunning development in a saga that has witnessed countless twists and turns. Here’s what you need to know:

The US has accused Mas’ud of making the bomb that downed a Pan American Airways plane bound for New York City.