American Prosecuting Attorneys Claim Libyan Voluntarily Admitted to Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing
American government attorneys have claimed that a Libyan national individual voluntarily admitted to being involved in attacks directed at Americans, including the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 incident and an failed attempt to assassinate a American public figure using a booby-trapped garment.
Admission Particulars
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is alleged to have admitted his role in the deaths of 270 people when the aircraft was exploded over the Scottish area of the region, during interviewing in a Libyan holding center in the year 2012.
Identified as the suspect, the elderly man has stated that multiple hooded persons pressured him to make the statement after threatening him and his loved ones.
His lawyers are trying to block it from being used as testimony in his legal proceedings in DC next year.
Legal Conflict
In response, lawyers from the US Department of Justice have said they can prove in court that the statement was "unforced, credible and accurate."
The existence of the suspect's claimed admission was first made public in the year 2020, when the US announced it was charging him with constructing and activating the bomb used on Flight 103.
Defendant's Claims
The family man is accused of being a former high-ranking officer in Libya's intelligence agency and has been in American confinement since recent years.
He has stated not responsible to the accusations and is due to appear in court at the District Court for the the capital in the coming months.
The defendant's lawyers are attempting to block the trial from being informed about the confession and have filed a motion asking for it to be suppressed.
They contend it was obtained under duress following the revolution which removed the former dictator in 2011.
Alleged Intimidation
They assert ex- officials of the dictator's regime were being targeted with wrongful killings, abductions and torture when the defendant was abducted from his home by weapon-carrying persons the next year.
He was moved to an unofficial prison facility where other detainees were allegedly abused and harmed and was alone in a small room when several masked men gave him a one sheet of paper.
His legal representatives claimed its scripted details began with an instruction that he was to confess to the Lockerbie attack and another terror attack.
Major Terrorist Events
The defendant asserts he was instructed to learn what it stated about the events and restate it when he was interrogated by another person the subsequent morning.
Being concerned for his safety and that of his family, he claimed he thought he had no alternative but to comply.
In their reply to the defense's request, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have stated the tribunal was being requested to suppress "very relevant proof" of the suspect's culpability in "several substantial terrorist events targeting Americans."
Government Responses
They say the suspect's version of incidents is unconvincing and inaccurate, and argue that the details of the statement can be supported by reliable independent evidence assembled over many years.
The prosecutors say the defendant and additional ex- members of the former leader's secret service were kept in a covert prison operated by a armed group when they were interrogated by an seasoned Libya's investigator.
They assert that in the turmoil of the post-uprising era, the location was "the most secure location" for Mas'ud and the fellow operatives, accounting for the conflict and resistance sentiment dominant at the moment.
Questioning Information
According to the police officer who interviewed the suspect, the location was "well run", the prisoners were not bound and there were no evidence of abuse or intimidation.
The investigator has said that over two days, a self-assured and fit suspect detailed his involvement in the attacks of Pan Am 103.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also asserted he had acknowledged constructing a bomb which detonated in a German club in the mid-1980s, killing three people, comprising two US servicemen, and injuring numerous more.
Additional Accusations
He is also alleged to have recounted his participation in an plot on the safety of an unnamed American diplomatic official at a public event in the Asian country.
Mas'ud is alleged to have stated that a person accompanying the American figure was bearing a rigged overcoat.
It was the defendant's assignment to activate the device but he decided not to proceed after finding out that the person wearing the coat did not realize he was on a deadly operation.
He decided "not to trigger the device" despite his superior in the secret service being with him at the time and asking what was {going on|happening|occurring