🔗 Share this article

US prosecutors have asserted that a Libyan suspect willingly admitted to being involved in terrorist acts targeting American targets, comprising the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and an aborted conspiracy to kill a American public figure using a booby-trapped coat.

Confession Particulars

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is said to have admitted his participation in the deaths of 270 individuals when Flight 103 was destroyed over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, during interviewing in a Libyan prison in 2012.

Known as Mas'ud, the senior individual has claimed that three disguised persons compelled him to provide the statement after menacing him and his relatives.

His attorneys are working to prevent it from being employed as evidence in his legal proceedings in Washington in the coming year.

Courtroom Battle

In response, attorneys from the federal prosecutors have declared they can establish in the courtroom that the admission was "unforced, trustworthy and accurate."

The existence of Mas'ud's claimed admission was first revealed in 2020, when the American authorities announced it was charging him with building and priming the bomb employed on the aircraft.

Defense Claims

The family man is charged of being a previous official in Libyan intelligence agency and has been in American detention since 2022.

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

His attorneys are attempting to stop the court from being informed about the admission and have submitted a motion asking for it to be withheld.

They contend it was secured under pressure following the overthrow which toppled the former dictator in 2011.

Alleged Pressure

They claim previous personnel of the ruler's government were being singled out with wrongful killings, seizures and abuse when the defendant was abducted from his dwelling by armed persons the next time.

He was moved to an unregistered detention center where additional prisoners were purportedly abused and harmed and was alone in a small space when three masked men gave him a one document of documentation.

His attorneys stated its scripted information began with an command that he was to confess to the Pan Am Flight 103 attack and an additional violent act.

Substantial Terror Events

The defendant states he was ordered to remember what it said about the occurrences and recite it when he was interviewed by another person the subsequent day.

Being concerned for his safety and that of his children, he stated he believed he had no alternative but to acquiesce.

In their response to the defendant's motion, attorneys from the federal prosecutors have said the court was being asked to exclude "very significant proof" of the defendant's responsibility in "two substantial terror events targeting US citizens."

Prosecution Rebuttals

They claim Mas'ud's account of occurrences is unbelievable and false, and assert that the information of the confession can be supported by trustworthy separate evidence gathered over several years.

The legal authorities state Mas'ud and additional previous personnel of Gaddafi's secret service were kept in a secret detention facility managed by a faction when they were questioned by an seasoned Libya's investigator.

They argue that in the chaos of the post-uprising time, the center was "the safest location" for Mas'ud and the other operatives, accounting for the violence and opposition sentiment prevailing at the period.

Investigation Particulars

Per to the investigator who questioned the defendant, the facility was "efficiently operated", the detainees were not confined and there were no indications of abuse or pressure.

The investigator has said that over multiple sessions, a confident and fit suspect detailed his role in the bombings of Flight 103.

The federal authorities has also claimed he had confessed constructing a device which exploded in a West Berlin club in 1986, causing the deaths of three persons, comprising two American soldiers, and wounding dozens additional.

Additional Accusations

He is also alleged to have detailed his involvement in an attempt on the life of an unidentified American foreign minister at a official ceremony in the Asian country.

Mas'ud is said to have described that a person with the American politician was carrying a explosive-laden coat.

It was the suspect's assignment to detonate the explosive but he chose not to act after finding out that the individual bearing the coat did not understand he was on a fatal assignment.

He chose "not to activate the trigger" despite his superior in the secret service being alongside at the period and inquiring what was {going on|happening|occurring