American Prosecutors Claim Libyan National Voluntarily Admitted to Pan Am Flight 103 Terrorist Incident
American legal authorities have stated that a Libyan national man willingly confessed to being involved in terrorist acts against US citizens, comprising the 1988's Pan Am Flight 103 incident and an failed conspiracy to kill a American government official using a rigged overcoat.
Admission Particulars
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is reported to have confessed his involvement in the killing of 270 victims when the aircraft was destroyed over the Scotland's community of the region, during interviewing in a Libyan prison in the year 2012.
Identified as the defendant, the 74-year-old has stated that multiple masked individuals forced him to make the admission after intimidating him and his relatives.
His lawyers are working to block it from being used as testimony in his legal proceedings in Washington in 2025.
Judicial Battle
In answer, attorneys from the federal prosecutors have stated they can establish in court that the statement was "voluntary, credible and truthful."
The existence of the defendant's alleged admission was originally revealed in the year 2020, when the United States stated it was accusing him with creating and priming the explosive device used on Pan Am 103.
Defendant's Claims
The father-of-six is alleged of being a ex- colonel in Libyan intelligence service and has been in US detention since recent years.
He has stated not responsible to the allegations and is due to face trial at the District Court for the the capital in April.
Mas'ud's lawyers are trying to stop the jury from learning about the admission and have presented a motion asking for it to be excluded.
They contend it was obtained under coercion following the revolution which toppled the former dictator in 2011.
Purported Coercion
They say previous members of the ruler's administration were being targeted with illegal murders, seizures and torture when the defendant was seized from his dwelling by hostile persons the next year.
He was taken to an informal prison facility where fellow inmates were reportedly abused and mistreated and was by himself in a cramped room when multiple hooded individuals presented him a solitary sheet of documentation.
His attorneys claimed its manually written details began with an command that he was to acknowledge to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and an additional terror attack.
Major Extremist Incidents
The suspect states he was ordered to learn what it indicated about the occurrences and restate it when he was interrogated by someone else the next day.
Being concerned for his well-being and that of his family, he stated he believed he had no option but to acquiesce.
In their answer to the defense's petition, attorneys from the US Department of Justice have said the court was being asked to exclude "highly pertinent proof" of the defendant's responsibility in "two major terrorist incidents directed at Americans."
Government Responses
They assert Mas'ud's version of incidents is unbelievable and false, and assert that the details of the statement can be corroborated by credible external testimony collected over many periods.
The prosecutors state Mas'ud and fellow former officials of the former leader's intelligence service were kept in a secret detention facility managed by a militia when they were interviewed by an seasoned Libyan investigator.
They contend that in the chaos of the aftermath period, the facility was "the safest place" for the defendant and the additional agents, accounting for the violence and opposition feeling prevailing at the period.
Questioning Particulars
Based to the police officer who questioned Mas'ud, the location was "efficiently operated", the detainees were not confined and there were no evidence of abuse or pressure.
The investigator has claimed that over two days, a confident and fit defendant explained his involvement in the attacks of Flight 103.
The FBI has also asserted he had confessed building a device which detonated in a German club in the mid-1980s, causing the deaths of several people, comprising two American servicemen, and injuring dozens more.
Other Accusations
He is also said to have described his role in an attempt on the life of an anonymous American foreign minister at a official ceremony in Pakistan.
The suspect is alleged to have described that someone accompanying the American figure was bearing a explosive-laden garment.
It was the suspect's mission to trigger the explosive but he chose not to proceed after discovering that the person wearing the garment did not understand he was on a fatal assignment.
He chose "not to push the button" despite his supervisor in the agency being with him at the time and asking what was {going on|happening|occurring