🔗 Share this article

US legal authorities have claimed that a Libyan national suspect willingly admitted to being involved in attacks against Americans, comprising the 1988 Lockerbie incident and an aborted attempt to assassinate a American public figure using a explosive-laden coat.

Statement Particulars

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is said to have acknowledged his involvement in the deaths of 270 victims when the aircraft was brought down over the Scotland's town of Lockerbie, during interviewing in a Libya's prison in 2012.

Identified as Mas'ud, the senior individual has asserted that several masked individuals forced him to deliver the statement after threatening him and his loved ones.

His legal representatives are working to block it from being utilized as evidence in his legal proceedings in Washington in the coming year.

Courtroom Battle

In answer, attorneys from the US Department of Justice have stated they can demonstrate in legal proceedings that the admission was "voluntary, reliable and correct."

The presence of Mas'ud's claimed statement was initially revealed in the year 2020, when the US announced it was indicting him with building and priming the explosive device utilized on Flight 103.

Defense Assertions

The father-of-six is alleged of being a ex- official in Libya's intelligence service and has been in US detention since recent years.

He has stated not guilty to the accusations and is expected to appear in court at the federal court for the Washington DC in the coming months.

Mas'ud's lawyers are trying to stop the trial from being informed about the confession and have submitted a request asking for it to be excluded.

They contend it was obtained under pressure following the uprising which toppled Colonel Gaddafi in the early 2010s.

Purported Pressure

They claim former personnel of the dictator's administration were being targeted with wrongful murders, abductions and torture when the suspect was taken from his home by armed men the following year.

He was transported to an unofficial prison facility where additional prisoners were allegedly beaten and mistreated and was isolated in a tiny cell when three masked individuals gave him a single page of paper.

His attorneys said its manually written contents commenced with an order that he was to confess to the Pan Am Flight 103 incident and an additional terror attack.

Significant Extremist Attacks

The suspect claims he was ordered to memorise what it stated about the occurrences and repeat it when he was interviewed by a different individual the following day.

Worrying for his safety and that of his offspring, he claimed he believed he had no alternative but to obey.

In their response to the defense's request, legal counsel from the US Department of Justice have declared the judge was being petitioned to withhold "extremely significant evidence" of the defendant's culpability in "two major terror incidents targeting US citizens."

Authorities Rebuttals

They assert the defendant's version of incidents is unconvincing and untrue, and assert that the contents of the statement can be supported by credible separate testimony collected over several years.

The government attorneys say the suspect and other previous personnel of the dictator's intelligence service were held in a covert holding center managed by a militia when they were interviewed by an seasoned Libya's police officer.

They assert that in the chaos of the post-revolution period, the facility was "the most secure place" for the defendant and the additional personnel, given the conflict and resistance attitude dominant at the time.

Investigation Information

According to the police officer who questioned Mas'ud, the location was "efficiently operated", the prisoners were not restrained and there were no indications of abuse or intimidation.

The investigator has claimed that over multiple sessions, a confident and fit Mas'ud explained his participation in the bombings of the aircraft.

The FBI has also stated he had acknowledged building a bomb which detonated in a West Berlin club in the mid-1980s, claiming the lives of multiple people, encompassing several American soldiers, and wounding dozens others.

Additional Claims

He is also reported to have detailed his participation in an plot on the safety of an anonymous American foreign minister at a state funeral in the Asian country.

The suspect is said to have described that someone travelling the US figure was carrying a explosive-laden coat.

It was the defendant's task to detonate the bomb but he decided not to act after finding out that the man carrying the item did not realize he was on a deadly operation.

He chose "not to trigger the button" despite his superior in the intelligence service being alongside at the time and asking what was {going on|happening|occurring