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US prosecutors have stated that a Libyan suspect willingly admitted to being involved in terrorist acts directed at US citizens, including the 1988 Lockerbie attack and an unsuccessful attempt to kill a American government official using a booby-trapped garment.

Admission Details

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is reported to have confessed his participation in the deaths of 270 individuals when Flight 103 was destroyed over the Scottish area of Lockerbie, during questioning in a Libya's prison in the year 2012.

Referred to as Mas'ud, the 74-year-old has asserted that several hooded persons compelled him to deliver the confession after menacing him and his family.

His lawyers are trying to stop it from being employed as testimony in his trial in DC in 2025.

Judicial Dispute

In response, lawyers from the American justice department have said they can prove in the courtroom that the admission was "voluntary, reliable and correct."

The availability of Mas'ud's claimed statement was first revealed in 2020, when the US declared it was charging him with creating and priming the IED used on the aircraft.

Legal Team Assertions

The defendant is alleged of being a former colonel in Libyan intelligence service 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 District Court for the District of Columbia in spring.

Mas'ud's legal team are attempting to prevent the court from learning about the admission and have filed a petition asking for it to be withheld.

They contend it was acquired under pressure following the uprising which removed the former dictator in the early 2010s.

Claimed Pressure

They assert previous officials of the dictator's regime were being singled out with wrongful murders, seizures and mistreatment when the suspect was abducted from his home by weapon-carrying persons the next time.

He was taken to an unofficial holding location where other detainees were purportedly abused and harmed and was isolated in a tiny space when three hooded men gave him a solitary sheet of paper.

His legal representatives stated its scripted details commenced with an instruction that he was to admit to the Pan Am Flight 103 attack and another terrorist incident.

Significant Terror Attacks

Mas'ud asserts he was instructed to remember what it said about the incidents and repeat it when he was interrogated by a different individual the subsequent time.

Worrying for his safety and that of his children, he said he thought he had no option but to comply.

In their response to the legal team's request, legal counsel from the American justice department have declared the court was being requested to exclude "extremely relevant testimony" of Mas'ud's responsibility in "two major terrorist events against US citizens."

Government Counterarguments

They claim the suspect's story of events is unconvincing and false, and assert that the details of the admission can be corroborated by reliable separate proof collected over numerous periods.

The prosecutors say the defendant and additional former members of Gaddafi's intelligence service were held in a hidden holding center operated by a faction when they were interrogated by an experienced Libya's investigator.

They contend that in the chaos of the post-revolution era, the center was "the safest location" for Mas'ud and the additional agents, considering the violence and resistance sentiment prevailing at the period.

Investigation Details

Per to the law enforcement official who interrogated the defendant, the location was "efficiently operated", the detainees were not bound and there were no evidence of abuse or intimidation.

The official has claimed that over multiple sessions, a composed and fit defendant explained his role in the bombings of Flight 103.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also stated he had acknowledged creating a bomb which went off in a German venue in 1986, killing multiple individuals, including multiple American military personnel, and harming dozens others.

Further Accusations

He is also alleged to have detailed his role in an attempt on the life of an anonymous American diplomatic official at a state funeral in Pakistan.

The suspect is reported to have stated that an individual travelling the US politician was bearing a explosive-laden garment.

It was Mas'ud's task to trigger the explosive but he decided not to proceed after discovering that the man bearing the garment did not realize he was on a deadly operation.

He decided "not to push the trigger" despite his superior in the intelligence service being alongside at the moment and questioning what was {going on|happening|occurring