US Prosecuting Attorneys Claim Libyan Willingly Admitted to Pan Am Flight 103 Terrorist Incident
American prosecutors have claimed that a Libyan national individual freely admitted to participating in attacks targeting American targets, comprising the 1988's Pan Am Flight 103 attack and an aborted conspiracy to assassinate a US public figure using a booby-trapped coat.
Statement Details
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is said to have admitted his involvement in the murder of 270 people when Pan Am 103 was destroyed over the Scotland's area of the region, during questioning in a Libya's holding center in the year 2012.
Referred to as the defendant, the 74-year-old has claimed that multiple masked individuals pressured him to deliver the admission after threatening him and his relatives.
His attorneys are working to stop it from being employed as proof in his legal proceedings in DC in 2025.
Judicial Conflict
In reply, legal counsel from the federal prosecutors have stated they can demonstrate in the courtroom that the admission was "willing, reliable and accurate."
The availability of the suspect's claimed confession was originally made public in 2020, when the United States declared it was indicting him with constructing and activating the IED used on Pan Am 103.
Defense Assertions
The family man is accused of being a previous official in Libya's intelligence service and has been in American detention since recent years.
He has stated not guilty to the accusations and is due to face trial at the District Court for the the capital in the coming months.
His legal team are attempting to block the court from being informed about the statement and have presented a motion asking for it to be withheld.
They argue it was obtained under coercion following the overthrow which overthrew the Libyan leader in the early 2010s.
Purported Intimidation
They claim ex- members of the leader's regime were being targeted with unlawful murders, seizures and torture when the suspect was taken from his residence by armed men the subsequent year.
He was moved to an unofficial detention center where other detainees were purportedly beaten and harmed and was isolated in a tiny space when multiple masked persons handed him a solitary document of material.
His attorneys said its handwritten information started with an instruction that he was to acknowledge to the Pan Am Flight 103 incident and an additional violent act.
Significant Extremist Incidents
The suspect asserts he was ordered to remember what it said about the events and repeat it when he was interviewed by another person the next morning.
Worrying for his safety and that of his offspring, he stated he thought he had no choice but to comply.
In their response to the legal team's request, legal counsel from the federal prosecutors have declared the judge was being requested to withhold "extremely relevant evidence" of Mas'ud's culpability in "two substantial terror events against Americans."
Prosecution Rebuttals
They say Mas'ud's account of incidents is implausible and untrue, and contend that the details of the statement can be corroborated by reliable external testimony gathered over numerous decades.
The legal authorities claim Mas'ud and other former members of the dictator's intelligence agency were detained in a hidden holding center managed by a armed group when they were questioned by an seasoned Libyan law enforcement official.
They contend that in the disorder of the post-revolution era, the center was "the most secure place" for the suspect and the other agents, considering the hostility and opposition feeling dominant at the period.
Investigation Particulars
Per to the investigator who interviewed Mas'ud, the location was "efficiently operated", the inmates were not bound and there were no evidence of torture or coercion.
The investigator has stated that over multiple sessions, a confident and well suspect described his participation in the attacks of Flight 103.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also stated he had confessed constructing a device which detonated in a German nightclub in 1986, killing several people, encompassing two US servicemen, and wounding many more.
Other Accusations
He is also reported to have detailed his participation in an attempt on the safety of an unidentified American foreign minister at a official ceremony in Pakistan.
Mas'ud is alleged to have explained that an individual travelling the American figure was bearing a rigged coat.
It was the defendant's task to activate the explosive but he decided not to act after discovering that the man bearing the garment did not understand he was on a fatal assignment.
He opted "not to activate the device" even though his commander in the agency being alongside at the time and asking what was {going on|happening|occurring