🔗 Share this article

US government attorneys have asserted that a Libyan national suspect voluntarily confessed to participating in operations directed at US citizens, encompassing the 1988's Lockerbie attack and an unsuccessful plot to target a US government official using a booby-trapped overcoat.

Confession Information

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is alleged to have confessed his involvement in the deaths of 270 victims when Flight 103 was brought down over the Scottish community of Lockerbie, during interviewing in a Libyan prison in the year 2012.

Known as Mas'ud, the senior individual has stated that several masked men pressured him to make the statement after intimidating him and his loved ones.

His legal representatives are trying to block it from being utilized as proof in his court case in the US capital in the coming year.

Courtroom Conflict

In response, attorneys from the US Department of Justice have said they can prove in the courtroom that the admission was "willing, trustworthy and accurate."

The existence of the suspect's claimed admission was originally revealed in 2020, when the United States stated it was accusing him with constructing and preparing the bomb used on the aircraft.

Legal Team Assertions

The defendant is charged of being a previous official in Libya's intelligence agency and has been in American custody since recent years.

He has entered not responsible to the allegations and is due to face trial at the federal court for the District of Columbia in spring.

His lawyers are attempting to block the jury from hearing about the confession and have presented a request asking for it to be suppressed.

They assert it was acquired under coercion following the overthrow which overthrew Colonel Gaddafi in the early 2010s.

Alleged Pressure

They say ex- officials of the leader's regime were being targeted with wrongful killings, seizures and torture when the suspect was taken from his home by hostile persons the following period.

He was moved to an unregistered detention center where additional prisoners were purportedly assaulted and abused and was by himself in a small cell when three masked persons presented him a one page of material.

His attorneys stated its scripted contents began with an order that he was to confess to the Pan Am Flight 103 incident and an additional terrorist incident.

Major Terror Incidents

The defendant claims he was told to remember what it stated about the occurrences and repeat it when he was questioned by a different individual the following time.

Fearing for his well-being and that of his children, he said he believed he had no alternative but to obey.

In their reply to the defendant's petition, attorneys from the American justice department have declared the court was being asked to suppress "highly significant testimony" of the defendant's responsibility in "multiple significant terrorist incidents directed at US citizens."

Authorities Counterarguments

They assert the suspect's story of incidents is unbelievable and inaccurate, and assert that the information of the admission can be supported by reliable separate testimony gathered over several periods.

The prosecutors state the suspect and fellow ex- members of the former leader's intelligence agency were detained in a hidden detention facility managed by a faction when they were interviewed by an knowledgeable Libya's investigator.

They assert that in the chaos of the aftermath era, the center was "the protected environment" for the suspect and the fellow operatives, accounting for the hostility and opposition feeling prevailing at the period.

Interrogation Details

Based to the investigator who questioned the suspect, the center was "efficiently operated", the inmates were not restrained and there were no evidence of torture or pressure.

The investigator has said that over two days, a confident and fit suspect explained his role in the bombings of the aircraft.

The FBI has also claimed he had admitted building a device which detonated in a Berlin club in the mid-1980s, claiming the lives of several individuals, encompassing several American military personnel, and wounding dozens others.

Further Allegations

He is also said to have described his involvement in an conspiracy on the safety of an anonymous American foreign minister at a public event in Pakistan.

The suspect is said to have explained that an individual travelling the US official was carrying a booby-trapped coat.

It was the suspect's task to activate the device but he decided not to do so after discovering that the man carrying the item did not know he was on a deadly operation.

He decided "not to trigger the device" even though his superior in the agency being present at the period and asking what was {going on|happening|occurring