Pam Bondi announces arrest of key participant in 2012 Benghazi attack

The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Friday a “key participant” in the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed four US government officials, including the US ambassador to Libya, J Christopher Stevens, has been arrested. Bondi said the suspect, Zubayar al-Bakoush, was taken into US custody at 3am ET on Friday and that a plane carrying him had landed at Joint Base Andrews overnight.

“We will prosecute this alleged terrorist to the fullest extent of the law. He’ll face charges related to murder, terrorism, arson, among others,” she told reporters at the Department of Justice in Washington DC. The FBI director, Kash Patel, said he needed to protect the “integrity” of the investigation and could not expand on operational details, but noted the government carried out a “foreign transfer of custody” to bring the suspect to the US.

United States, Washington DC