🔗 Share this article

American legal authorities have asserted that a Libyan national individual willingly admitted to being involved in terrorist acts directed at Americans, comprising the 1988's Lockerbie bombing and an failed attempt to assassinate a American public figure using a explosive-laden overcoat.

Statement Details

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is said to have admitted his participation in the deaths of 270 individuals when the aircraft was exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, during questioning in a Libya's prison in the year 2012.

Known as Mas'ud, the elderly man has asserted that multiple hooded persons forced him to deliver the confession after intimidating him and his loved ones.

His legal representatives are trying to block it from being employed as evidence in his legal proceedings in Washington next year.

Legal Conflict

In response, attorneys from the federal prosecutors have declared they can demonstrate in legal proceedings that the confession was "voluntary, trustworthy and truthful."

The availability of Mas'ud's purported confession was first revealed in the year 2020, when the American authorities declared it was accusing him with building and priming the explosive device employed on Flight 103.

Defense Claims

The defendant is accused of being a former high-ranking officer in Libyan secret service and has been in US confinement since 2022.

He has stated not guilty to the allegations and is expected to appear in court at the District Court for the the capital in April.

The defendant's attorneys are trying to stop the jury from being informed about the confession and have filed a request asking for it to be withheld.

They argue it was acquired under pressure following the uprising which removed Colonel Gaddafi in 2011.

Alleged Pressure

They claim previous officials of the leader's administration were being targeted with wrongful deaths, abductions and mistreatment when the suspect was abducted from his residence by hostile individuals the next year.

He was moved to an unregistered detention center where other prisoners were reportedly beaten and abused and was alone in a small cell when multiple disguised men presented him a one document of paper.

His legal representatives said its manually written contents began with an instruction that he was to confess to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and an additional violent act.

Major Terrorist Attacks

Mas'ud claims he was ordered to memorise what it indicated about the events and recite it when he was interrogated by someone else the next morning.

Being concerned for his well-being and that of his children, he claimed he thought he had no option but to obey.

In their response to the legal team's petition, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have stated the court was being requested to exclude "extremely relevant evidence" of the defendant's guilt in "several substantial terror attacks directed at American people."

Prosecution Rebuttals

They say the suspect's account of incidents is implausible and untrue, and contend that the contents of the admission can be corroborated by trustworthy independent evidence assembled over several periods.

The prosecutors claim Mas'ud and other former officials of the dictator's intelligence service were detained in a secret holding center managed by a militia when they were questioned by an knowledgeable Libyan law enforcement official.

They argue that in the disorder of the post-uprising period, the facility was "the most secure environment" for Mas'ud and the other operatives, accounting for the violence and opposition sentiment widespread at the time.

Investigation Details

Per to the law enforcement official who interrogated the suspect, the facility was "efficiently operated", the prisoners were not bound and there were no evidence of torture or intimidation.

The official has claimed that over multiple sessions, a confident and fit Mas'ud detailed his participation in the explosions of the aircraft.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also claimed he had acknowledged building a device which went off in a West Berlin club in the mid-1980s, killing several people, encompassing multiple US military personnel, and harming numerous more.

Additional Allegations

He is also said to have detailed his role in an attempt on the life of an unnamed US diplomatic official at a state funeral in the Asian country.

The defendant is alleged to have explained that a person accompanying the US figure was carrying a booby-trapped coat.

It was Mas'ud's task to activate the device but he chose not to proceed after finding out that the individual wearing the garment did not know he was on a suicide mission.

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