Abu Agila Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, was due to go on trial in Washington last month, but proceedings were delayed due to his health and the complex nature of the case. At the joint request of both legal teams, the trial is now scheduled to begin next April.

Masud denies planting the device that caused the mid-air explosion on 21 December 1988, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 residents in Lockerbie when wreckage fell to the ground.

Now in his early seventies, Masud holds dual Libyan and Tunisian citizenship and is being treated for a non-life-threatening condition.

In a joint report to the US District Court in Washington, the parties cited the “complex, international nature” of the case and called for an “atypical” pre-trial schedule. They also sought an early deadline for motions to suppress statements allegedly made by Masud during his imprisonment in Libya in 2012.

Those statements are said to be central to the US prosecution, with Masud purportedly confessing to working for Libyan intelligence and to building the bomb. He is also alleged to have named Abdelbasset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah as accomplices.

Mr Megrahi was convicted in 2001 and released on compassionate grounds in 2009 before dying in Tripoli three years later. Mr Fhimah was acquitted at trial.

Masud was identified as a suspect in 2015 following the fall of the Gaddafi regime and was charged by US authorities in 2020. He was transferred into American custody in 2022 after being seized from his home in Libya by an armed group.