US Prosecuting Attorneys Assert Libyan National Freely Admitted to Pan Am Flight 103 Terrorist Incident
American government attorneys have asserted that a Libyan individual willingly admitted to participating in attacks targeting Americans, encompassing the 1988's Lockerbie attack and an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a US politician using a explosive-laden overcoat.
Statement Information
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is said to have acknowledged his involvement in the killing of 270 victims when Pan Am 103 was brought down over the Scotland's area of Lockerbie, during interrogation in a Libyan prison in the year 2012.
Identified as the defendant, the 74-year-old has asserted that multiple disguised men compelled him to provide the statement after threatening him and his relatives.
His legal representatives are working to prevent it from being utilized as proof in his court case in the US capital in the coming year.
Judicial Dispute
In answer, legal counsel from the US Department of Justice have said they can establish in the courtroom that the admission was "voluntary, trustworthy and accurate."
The existence of the suspect's purported statement was first disclosed in the year 2020, when the United States declared it was accusing him with constructing and activating the IED used on the aircraft.
Defendant's Claims
The family man is accused of being a previous colonel in Libya's secret service and has been in American custody since 2022.
He has entered not guilty to the charges and is expected to face trial at the US court for the District of Columbia in April.
The defendant's legal team are trying to stop the trial from being informed about the confession and have submitted a petition asking for it to be excluded.
They contend it was acquired under coercion following the uprising which removed Colonel Gaddafi in 2011.
Claimed Pressure
They assert ex- officials of the leader's government were being singled out with illegal murders, seizures and mistreatment when the defendant was abducted from his dwelling by weapon-carrying individuals the following period.
He was transported to an informal holding location where other prisoners were reportedly abused and abused and was alone in a small cell when three hooded men gave him a solitary document of material.
His attorneys said its scripted information commenced with an instruction that he was to admit to the Lockerbie incident and another terror attack.
Major Terror Incidents
The suspect asserts he was told to remember what it stated about the events and recite it when he was interviewed by someone else the next day.
Worrying for his safety and that of his children, he claimed he felt he had no alternative but to acquiesce.
In their reply to the defendant's motion, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have said the judge was being asked to suppress "extremely relevant proof" of Mas'ud's culpability in "several major terrorist events targeting American people."
Prosecution Responses
They claim the defendant's version of occurrences is unconvincing and untrue, and assert that the contents of the admission can be verified by credible separate testimony assembled over many decades.
The prosecutors state the defendant and fellow former members of the former leader's intelligence agency were detained in a hidden holding center operated by a militia when they were interviewed by an seasoned Libyan police officer.
They contend that in the disorder of the aftermath era, the center was "the safest location" for Mas'ud and the additional operatives, given the hostility and opposition feeling dominant at the time.
Questioning Details
According to the law enforcement official who interrogated Mas'ud, the location was "efficiently operated", the detainees were not confined and there were no indications of torture or coercion.
The official has stated that over 48 hours, a confident and healthy suspect detailed his participation in the explosions of Flight 103.
The FBI has also asserted he had confessed constructing a bomb which detonated in a Berlin nightclub in 1986, killing multiple people, encompassing multiple American soldiers, and harming dozens more.
Other Claims
He is also reported to have recounted his participation in an plot on the lives of an unidentified American foreign minister at a official ceremony in the Asian country.
The defendant is reported to have described that a person accompanying the American figure was wearing a booby-trapped garment.
It was the suspect's mission to activate the explosive but he chose not to do so after discovering that the person bearing the item did not realize he was on a suicide mission.
He chose "not to trigger the trigger" even though his supervisor in the agency being present at the moment and questioning what was {going on|happening|occurring