US Prosecutors Claim Libyan Freely Admitted to Lockerbie Terrorist Incident
US legal authorities have stated that a Libyan national individual voluntarily confessed to participating in attacks against US citizens, encompassing the 1988's Pan Am Flight 103 incident and an aborted attempt to target a American politician using a booby-trapped coat.
Statement Information
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is alleged to have confessed his involvement in the deaths of 270 victims when the aircraft was exploded over the Scotland's town of Lockerbie, during interviewing in a Libya's holding center in 2012.
Identified as the suspect, the senior individual has stated that multiple disguised individuals forced him to deliver the admission after threatening him and his family.
His lawyers are trying to stop it from being utilized as evidence in his legal proceedings in Washington next year.
Courtroom Conflict
In reply, legal counsel from the US Department of Justice have declared they can prove in court that the statement was "unforced, trustworthy and truthful."
The presence of the suspect's claimed admission was first disclosed in the year 2020, when the US announced it was accusing him with building and activating the IED utilized on the aircraft.
Defendant's Allegations
The father-of-six is alleged of being a previous official in Libyan secret service and has been in US custody since 2022.
He has pleaded not guilty to the allegations and is due to stand trial at the US court for the District of Columbia in the coming months.
His legal team are attempting to block the court from hearing about the confession and have presented a motion asking for it to be excluded.
They contend it was secured under coercion following the revolution which removed the Libyan leader in 2011.
Purported Intimidation
They assert previous personnel of the dictator's administration were being targeted with unlawful deaths, seizures and abuse when the defendant was seized from his dwelling by hostile persons the next year.
He was taken to an informal prison facility where additional prisoners were purportedly beaten and abused and was alone in a small space when three disguised persons presented him a one document of paper.
His lawyers claimed its manually written contents commenced with an order that he was to confess to the Lockerbie incident and another terror attack.
Major Terrorist Incidents
The defendant claims he was instructed to remember what it indicated about the events and restate it when he was interrogated by someone else the following time.
Being concerned for his safety and that of his offspring, he claimed he believed he had no alternative but to comply.
In their answer to the defense's petition, attorneys from the federal prosecutors have stated the court was being petitioned to exclude "very pertinent proof" of the defendant's guilt in "two significant terror events against Americans."
Prosecution Counterarguments
They say Mas'ud's version of occurrences is unbelievable and untrue, and argue that the details of the statement can be verified by trustworthy external testimony assembled over many periods.
The government attorneys state the suspect and fellow former officials of the dictator's intelligence service were kept in a hidden detention facility operated by a armed group when they were interrogated by an knowledgeable Libya's police officer.
They assert that in the turmoil of the post-revolution time, the facility was "the safest location" for the suspect and the fellow operatives, given the violence and resistance feeling widespread at the time.
Investigation Information
Per to the police officer who interviewed the defendant, the center was "properly managed", the inmates were not confined and there were no indications of torture or pressure.
The officer has said that over 48 hours, a composed and fit suspect described his role in the bombings of Pan Am 103.
The FBI has also asserted he had acknowledged constructing a bomb which detonated in a West Berlin club in the mid-1980s, causing the deaths of several persons, comprising multiple American servicemen, and wounding dozens others.
Further Accusations
He is also alleged to have recounted his involvement in an conspiracy on the lives of an unnamed American Secretary of State at a official ceremony in the Asian country.
The suspect is reported to have described that a person accompanying the American figure was wearing a explosive-laden garment.
It was the defendant's mission to activate the device but he opted not to do so after discovering that the man carrying the garment did not realize he was on a suicide mission.
He chose "not to trigger the button" despite his superior in the secret service being present at the moment and asking what was {going on|happening|occurring