US Prosecuting Attorneys Allege Libyan National Voluntarily Confessed to Lockerbie Bombing
US legal authorities have asserted that a Libyan individual willingly confessed to participating in attacks against US citizens, including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and an failed conspiracy to assassinate a American public figure using a explosive-laden coat.
Statement Details
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is said to have confessed his participation in the deaths of 270 people when Pan Am 103 was destroyed over the Scotland's community of Lockerbie, during interviewing in a Libya's prison in the year 2012.
Referred to as the defendant, the senior individual has stated that multiple masked individuals forced him to make the statement after menacing him and his relatives.
His lawyers are trying to block it from being employed as proof in his legal proceedings in Washington next year.
Legal Dispute
In answer, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have declared they can prove in the courtroom that the statement was "willing, reliable and correct."
The presence of the defendant's alleged statement was originally disclosed in 2020, when the US declared it was accusing him with building and activating the IED used on Flight 103.
Legal Team Assertions
The family man is alleged of being a ex- official in Libyan intelligence agency and has been in US custody since 2022.
He has stated not guilty to the charges and is due to appear in court at the federal court for the District of Columbia in the coming months.
His legal team are working to block the trial from learning about the confession and have presented a petition asking for it to be excluded.
They argue it was secured under pressure following the uprising which toppled Colonel Gaddafi in 2011.
Claimed Intimidation
They assert ex- officials of the leader's administration were being targeted with unlawful deaths, seizures and torture when the suspect was abducted from his dwelling by hostile men the following time.
He was moved to an informal detention center where fellow inmates were allegedly abused and harmed and was alone in a tiny cell when several masked persons gave him a solitary sheet of documentation.
His attorneys claimed its scripted information commenced with an command that he was to confess to the Lockerbie bombing and another violent act.
Substantial Terrorist Attacks
The defendant claims he was instructed to remember what it indicated about the events and recite it when he was interviewed by someone else the following time.
Fearing for his security and that of his family, he said he thought he had no alternative but to acquiesce.
In their response to the defense's request, attorneys from the US Department of Justice have said the tribunal was being asked to exclude "very pertinent proof" of Mas'ud's responsibility in "several substantial extremist attacks directed at American people."
Government Counterarguments
They say the suspect's version of events is unconvincing and inaccurate, and argue that the details of the admission can be corroborated by credible external testimony gathered over several years.
The prosecutors state the suspect and other ex- members of Gaddafi's secret service were held in a secret prison managed by a armed group when they were questioned by an experienced Libyan investigator.
They contend that in the disorder of the aftermath period, the location was "the safest environment" for the defendant and the additional agents, considering the hostility and opposition attitude widespread at the moment.
Investigation Details
According to the law enforcement official who interrogated the suspect, the location was "efficiently operated", the prisoners were not confined and there were no indications of coercion or pressure.
The official has said that over 48 hours, a self-assured and healthy defendant explained his involvement in the attacks of the aircraft.
The federal authorities has also asserted he had acknowledged constructing a device which went off in a German venue in 1986, killing several persons, encompassing several American soldiers, and wounding dozens additional.
Additional Accusations
He is also alleged to have described his involvement in an conspiracy on the life of an unidentified American Secretary of State at a state funeral in the Asian country.
The suspect is said to have described that a person accompanying the US politician was bearing a rigged garment.
It was the defendant's mission to detonate the bomb but he decided not to act after discovering that the person carrying the item did not understand he was on a suicide mission.
He decided "not to push the device" even though his commander in the secret service being present at the period and inquiring what was {going on|happening|occurring