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American government attorneys have claimed that a Libyan national man freely confessed to taking part in terrorist acts targeting US citizens, including the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 attack and an unsuccessful plot to target a US public figure using a booby-trapped overcoat.

Confession Information

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is said to have admitted his participation in the deaths of 270 victims when Flight 103 was brought down over the Scottish area of Lockerbie, during interrogation in a Libya's prison in 2012.

Known as the defendant, the senior individual has claimed that multiple masked men pressured him to deliver the confession after threatening him and his loved ones.

His lawyers are attempting to prevent it from being utilized as evidence in his trial in the US capital in the coming year.

Legal Battle

In answer, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have stated they can prove in the courtroom that the confession was "willing, trustworthy and accurate."

The availability of the suspect's claimed confession was originally revealed in 2020, when the US declared it was accusing him with constructing and activating the explosive device employed on Pan Am 103.

Defendant's Assertions

The defendant is charged of being a former high-ranking officer in Libyan intelligence agency and has been in US custody since 2022.

He has stated not guilty to the allegations and is scheduled to appear in court at the US court for the Washington DC in spring.

Mas'ud's legal team are working to prevent the jury from being informed about the admission and have presented a request asking for it to be excluded.

They contend it was secured under duress following the overthrow which overthrew the former dictator in 2011.

Purported Intimidation

They claim previous members of the dictator's government were being targeted with illegal killings, kidnappings and mistreatment when Mas'ud was seized from his residence by hostile persons the subsequent period.

He was transported to an unregistered detention center where other inmates were purportedly beaten and mistreated and was alone in a cramped room when three masked persons handed him a single page of documentation.

His attorneys stated its manually written details began with an instruction that he was to confess to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and a separate terror attack.

Significant Terror Attacks

Mas'ud asserts he was instructed to remember what it stated about the events and restate it when he was questioned by someone else the next time.

Fearing for his well-being and that of his offspring, he stated he felt he had no choice but to comply.

In their answer to the legal team's petition, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have declared the judge was being requested to exclude "very pertinent evidence" of the defendant's guilt in "multiple substantial extremist attacks against American people."

Prosecution Responses

They assert Mas'ud's version of events is unbelievable and false, and assert that the contents of the confession can be supported by credible independent testimony gathered over numerous years.

The legal authorities say Mas'ud and other previous personnel of the dictator's secret service were kept in a secret prison operated by a faction when they were questioned by an experienced Libya's law enforcement official.

They assert that in the chaos of the aftermath time, the facility was "the most secure environment" for the defendant and the additional personnel, considering the hostility and opposition feeling widespread at the moment.

Investigation Information

Based to the investigator who interviewed Mas'ud, the center was "properly managed", the prisoners were not restrained and there were no evidence of torture or pressure.

The officer has stated that over two days, a composed and healthy Mas'ud explained his involvement in the bombings of Pan Am 103.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also asserted he had admitted creating a device which exploded in a West Berlin nightclub in the mid-1980s, causing the deaths of multiple people, comprising two US soldiers, and injuring dozens others.

Additional Accusations

He is also reported to have described his role in an attempt on the lives of an unidentified American foreign minister at a official ceremony in the Asian country.

The suspect is reported to have explained that an individual travelling the US politician was carrying a explosive-laden overcoat.

It was the defendant's task to detonate the device but he decided not to do so after discovering that the man bearing the item did not understand he was on a suicide mission.

He decided "not to trigger the button" although his supervisor in the secret service being present at the time and questioning what was {going on|happening|occurring