🔗 Share this article

American prosecutors have claimed that a Libyan individual willingly admitted to participating in terrorist acts targeting Americans, comprising the 1988's Lockerbie incident and an aborted attempt to assassinate a American government official using a booby-trapped overcoat.

Admission Details

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is alleged to have admitted his participation in the killing of 270 victims when the aircraft was exploded over the Scotland's area of the region, during interviewing in a Libyan prison in 2012.

Identified as the suspect, the senior individual has asserted that multiple disguised men compelled him to make the admission after threatening him and his family.

His attorneys are trying to prevent it from being utilized as proof in his trial in DC in the coming year.

Courtroom Battle

In reply, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have said they can establish in the courtroom that the admission was "voluntary, reliable and correct."

The availability of Mas'ud's claimed admission was initially disclosed in the year 2020, when the US declared it was indicting him with building and activating the IED employed on Pan Am 103.

Defense Assertions

The father-of-six is accused of being a former high-ranking officer in Libya's intelligence service and has been in American confinement since 2022.

He has entered not responsible to the allegations and is expected to stand trial at the US court for the District of Columbia in April.

Mas'ud's attorneys are working to prevent the court from learning about the admission and have presented a request asking for it to be suppressed.

They contend it was obtained under duress following the revolution which removed the former dictator in 2011.

Alleged Pressure

They assert former personnel of the leader's government were being targeted with unlawful murders, abductions and torture when the suspect was seized from his residence by hostile men the following period.

He was taken to an unofficial holding location where other inmates were reportedly beaten and abused and was by himself in a small space when three disguised persons gave him a single page of documentation.

His attorneys said its manually written information started with an command that he was to confess to the Lockerbie attack and another violent act.

Substantial Terrorist Attacks

The suspect asserts he was told to memorise what it indicated about the incidents and recite it when he was interviewed by another person the subsequent time.

Being concerned for his safety and that of his family, he claimed he believed he had no alternative but to obey.

In their response to the defense's request, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have declared the court was being asked to exclude "extremely pertinent testimony" of the suspect's culpability in "several major terrorist events targeting US citizens."

Authorities Rebuttals

They say Mas'ud's account of incidents is unconvincing and inaccurate, and argue that the information of the statement can be verified by reliable independent testimony assembled over several decades.

The legal authorities say Mas'ud and other previous members of the dictator's secret service were held in a covert detention facility operated by a armed group when they were interrogated by an knowledgeable Libya's law enforcement official.

They contend that in the chaos of the post-revolution era, the facility was "the protected environment" for the defendant and the additional operatives, considering the conflict and opposition attitude dominant at the time.

Interrogation Details

According to the police officer who questioned the suspect, the center was "well run", the prisoners were not confined and there were no evidence of coercion or coercion.

The officer has claimed that over 48 hours, a composed and well defendant explained his participation in the explosions of Pan Am 103.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also asserted he had acknowledged building a explosive which went off in a West Berlin club in 1986, killing several people, comprising several US servicemen, and wounding many others.

Additional Accusations

He is also alleged to have recounted his role in an attempt on the lives of an unidentified US diplomatic official at a state funeral in Pakistan.

The suspect is said to have stated that someone with the American figure was carrying a booby-trapped garment.

It was Mas'ud's task to activate the explosive but he chose not to act after learning that the person wearing the coat did not know he was on a suicide mission.

He chose "not to trigger the trigger" even though his commander in the secret service being present at the period and asking what was {going on|happening|occurring