US Prosecutors Claim Libyan National Freely Admitted to Lockerbie Attack
US government attorneys have asserted that a Libyan national suspect freely admitted to taking part in terrorist acts against US citizens, encompassing the 1988's Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and an unsuccessful attempt to target a US public figure using a booby-trapped coat.
Admission Details
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is reported to have acknowledged his involvement in the murder of 270 people when the aircraft was brought down over the Scotland's town of Lockerbie, during questioning in a Libyan detention facility in the year 2012.
Referred to as the defendant, the 74-year-old has asserted that several disguised men compelled him to deliver the statement after threatening him and his family.
His lawyers are trying to block it from being used as testimony in his trial in the US capital next year.
Legal Dispute
In reply, attorneys from the US Department of Justice have said they can establish in the courtroom that the statement was "unforced, trustworthy and truthful."
The availability of Mas'ud's alleged confession was first disclosed in 2020, when the American authorities declared it was charging him with constructing and priming the explosive device employed on the aircraft.
Defense Assertions
The family man is charged of being a ex- high-ranking officer in Libyan intelligence agency and has been in American custody since 2022.
He has stated not responsible to the allegations and is scheduled to face trial at the District Court for the District of Columbia in April.
His legal team are trying to stop the trial from being informed about the statement and have filed a request asking for it to be suppressed.
They assert it was secured under coercion following the uprising which removed the former dictator in the early 2010s.
Alleged Coercion
They assert ex- members of the leader's administration were being targeted with illegal murders, abductions and torture when the suspect was seized from his dwelling by hostile men the subsequent period.
He was moved to an informal holding location where fellow detainees were reportedly assaulted and abused and was alone in a cramped room when several masked individuals handed him a solitary page of documentation.
His lawyers claimed its handwritten details commenced with an instruction that he was to confess to the Lockerbie incident and an additional violent act.
Substantial Terrorist Incidents
The suspect asserts he was instructed to remember what it indicated about the incidents and restate it when he was interrogated by someone else the following morning.
Being concerned for his safety and that of his family, he said he believed he had no choice but to obey.
In their reply to the defendant's request, legal counsel from the federal prosecutors have said the tribunal was being requested to exclude "very relevant evidence" of the suspect's guilt in "several major terror events against US citizens."
Authorities Responses
They say the suspect's story of occurrences is unconvincing and false, and contend that the contents of the statement can be verified by reliable external evidence gathered over numerous decades.
The government attorneys claim Mas'ud and fellow ex- members of the dictator's intelligence service were kept in a secret detention facility run by a armed group when they were interrogated by an knowledgeable Libyan law enforcement official.
They contend that in the disorder of the post-uprising time, the facility was "the most secure location" for the suspect and the additional agents, given the hostility and resistance sentiment widespread at the time.
Questioning Information
Based to the investigator who interrogated the suspect, the location was "efficiently operated", the inmates were not restrained and there were no signs of torture or intimidation.
The officer has said that over two days, a self-assured and fit Mas'ud detailed his role in the bombings of the aircraft.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also asserted he had confessed building a device which went off in a Berlin venue in the mid-1980s, killing multiple persons, including multiple US military personnel, and harming numerous more.
Other Accusations
He is also reported to have detailed his role in an attempt on the life of an unidentified US diplomatic official at a state funeral in Pakistan.
Mas'ud is said to have stated that an individual accompanying the American figure was bearing a explosive-laden coat.
It was Mas'ud's assignment to trigger the explosive but he decided not to do so after discovering that the man carrying the garment did not realize he was on a fatal assignment.
He chose "not to activate the trigger" despite his supervisor in the agency being with him at the period and questioning what was {going on|happening|occurring
