American Prosecutors Allege Libyan National Freely Confessed to Pan Am Flight 103 Terrorist Incident

US government attorneys have stated that a Libyan national suspect voluntarily admitted to participating in operations targeting American targets, including the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 attack and an failed conspiracy to kill a US government official using a booby-trapped coat.

Statement Information

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is reported to have admitted his participation in the deaths of 270 people when Pan Am 103 was brought down over the Scotland's town of Lockerbie, during interviewing in a Libya's holding center in 2012.

Identified as Mas'ud, the 74-year-old has stated that several masked individuals forced him to make the admission after menacing him and his relatives.

His attorneys are attempting to block it from being utilized as proof in his legal proceedings in Washington next year.

Judicial Battle

In answer, attorneys from the federal prosecutors have said they can establish in court that the statement was "willing, reliable and accurate."

The existence of Mas'ud's alleged admission was initially disclosed in 2020, when the US declared it was accusing him with creating and preparing the explosive device used on Flight 103.

Defendant's Claims

The father-of-six is alleged of being a previous colonel in Libyan intelligence agency and has been in US custody since 2022.

He has entered not responsible to the allegations and is scheduled to stand trial at the District Court for the Washington DC in spring.

His legal team are trying to prevent the trial from learning about the admission and have presented a request asking for it to be excluded.

They argue it was secured under pressure following the revolution which toppled the Libyan leader in 2011.

Alleged Intimidation

They say previous personnel of the dictator's administration were being targeted with illegal murders, kidnappings and mistreatment when Mas'ud was taken from his residence by armed individuals the following year.

He was moved to an unofficial holding location where additional prisoners were allegedly beaten and abused and was by himself in a tiny cell when multiple hooded individuals handed him a solitary document of paper.

His attorneys claimed its scripted details started with an command that he was to acknowledge to the Lockerbie attack and another terrorist incident.

Significant Extremist Events

The defendant asserts he was instructed to remember what it indicated about the events and recite it when he was questioned by a different individual the subsequent time.

Fearing for his security and that of his children, he said he thought he had no alternative but to comply.

In their response to the defendant's request, lawyers from the US Department of Justice have stated the tribunal was being petitioned to suppress "highly relevant proof" of the suspect's culpability in "multiple major terror events against American people."

Authorities Responses

They assert the suspect's story of occurrences is unconvincing and false, and assert that the contents of the statement can be supported by credible independent evidence gathered over many decades.

The government attorneys say Mas'ud and additional former members of the former leader's intelligence service were held in a covert prison run by a faction when they were interviewed by an experienced Libyan law enforcement official.

They contend that in the disorder of the post-uprising period, the center was "the most secure location" for the defendant and the other personnel, considering the conflict and anti-Gaddafi sentiment widespread at the period.

Investigation Details

Per to the investigator who interrogated the defendant, the center was "efficiently operated", the inmates were not restrained and there were no signs of torture or coercion.

The investigator has claimed that over multiple sessions, a self-assured and well suspect explained his role in the explosions of Pan Am 103.

The federal authorities has also asserted he had admitted constructing a device which went off in a West Berlin nightclub in the mid-1980s, causing the deaths of multiple individuals, encompassing multiple US military personnel, and injuring dozens more.

Further Claims

He is also alleged to have recounted his role in an conspiracy on the lives of an unidentified US Secretary of State at a public event in the Asian country.

Mas'ud is reported to have stated that an individual travelling the US figure was carrying a explosive-laden overcoat.

It was Mas'ud's task to detonate the explosive but he chose not to do so after finding out that the man carrying the item did not understand he was on a suicide mission.

He opted "not to push the trigger" even though his superior in the secret service being alongside at the period and questioning what was {going on|happening|occurring