American Prosecuting Attorneys Claim Libyan National Freely Admitted to Pan Am Flight 103 Terrorist Incident

US government attorneys have asserted that a Libyan national individual freely admitted to being involved in terrorist acts directed at US citizens, comprising the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and an failed plot to target a US government official using a booby-trapped coat.

Statement Details

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is alleged to have confessed his involvement in the murder of 270 victims when Pan Am 103 was exploded over the Scottish area of the region, during interviewing in a Libyan holding center in the year 2012.

Referred to as Mas'ud, the elderly man has stated that several disguised persons forced him to deliver the statement after intimidating him and his relatives.

His lawyers are working to block it from being utilized as evidence in his court case in Washington in 2025.

Legal Battle

In response, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have stated they can prove in legal proceedings that the confession was "voluntary, reliable and truthful."

The presence of the defendant's claimed statement was first revealed in 2020, when the United States announced it was charging him with building and activating the bomb employed on the aircraft.

Defense Assertions

The defendant is accused of being a ex- high-ranking officer in Libyan intelligence agency and has been in American custody since recent years.

He has entered not guilty to the allegations and is due to face trial at the US court for the District of Columbia in April.

His attorneys are trying to block the jury from hearing about the statement and have presented a request asking for it to be withheld.

They assert it was acquired under coercion following the revolution which removed Colonel Gaddafi in the early 2010s.

Alleged Coercion

They say former members of the leader's administration were being victimized with wrongful murders, abductions and torture when the suspect was abducted from his dwelling by armed individuals the next time.

He was moved to an informal detention center where other detainees were reportedly abused and abused and was by himself in a cramped cell when three disguised individuals gave him a solitary sheet of paper.

His attorneys stated its handwritten contents commenced with an instruction that he was to confess to the Lockerbie incident and another terrorist incident.

Significant Extremist Events

The suspect asserts he was instructed to remember what it stated about the occurrences and recite it when he was questioned by a different individual the subsequent time.

Worrying for his well-being and that of his children, he said he thought he had no choice but to obey.

In their response to the defendant's request, attorneys from the US Department of Justice have declared the judge was being asked to withhold "highly relevant evidence" of Mas'ud's culpability in "multiple significant extremist events against US citizens."

Authorities Rebuttals

They claim Mas'ud's story of occurrences is implausible and untrue, and contend that the information of the admission can be supported by credible separate evidence gathered over several decades.

The legal authorities claim the suspect and other previous officials of the former leader's secret service were kept in a hidden prison operated by a faction when they were interviewed by an seasoned Libya's police officer.

They argue that in the turmoil of the aftermath period, the center was "the protected place" for the suspect and the fellow agents, considering the conflict and opposition attitude dominant at the period.

Investigation Information

Based to the law enforcement official who interrogated the defendant, the center was "efficiently operated", the inmates were not confined and there were no signs of torture or coercion.

The investigator has claimed that over 48 hours, a self-assured and fit defendant explained his role in the explosions of Pan Am 103.

The FBI has also asserted he had acknowledged creating a bomb which went off in a West Berlin nightclub in the mid-1980s, killing multiple individuals, including several American soldiers, and injuring many others.

Additional Claims

He is also reported to have recounted his role in an attempt on the life of an anonymous American foreign minister at a public event in the Asian country.

The defendant is said to have described that an individual accompanying the US politician was wearing a rigged overcoat.

It was the suspect's task to trigger the device but he decided not to proceed after discovering that the person carrying the item did not realize he was on a deadly operation.

He chose "not to activate the device" despite his supervisor in the agency being present at the time and asking what was {going on|happening|occurring