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American prosecutors have stated that a Libyan individual freely confessed to being involved in attacks targeting US citizens, including the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and an unsuccessful conspiracy to target a US government official using a booby-trapped garment.

Confession Particulars

Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is alleged to have admitted his participation in the deaths of 270 victims when Flight 103 was exploded over the Scotland's community of the region, during questioning in a Libya's prison in the year 2012.

Known as the defendant, the elderly man has asserted that multiple masked persons compelled him to provide the admission after threatening him and his family.

His attorneys are working to block it from being used as testimony in his court case in DC next year.

Legal Conflict

In answer, lawyers from the US Department of Justice have stated they can demonstrate in legal proceedings that the admission was "voluntary, reliable and truthful."

The availability of Mas'ud's purported statement was originally made public in 2020, when the United States declared it was accusing him with creating and priming the IED employed on the aircraft.

Defendant's Claims

The defendant is alleged of being a ex- colonel in Libya's intelligence service and has been in American confinement since recent years.

He has entered not responsible to the allegations and is scheduled to appear in court at the District Court for the Washington DC in spring.

His attorneys are working to block the court from learning about the confession and have filed a request asking for it to be excluded.

They contend it was obtained under duress following the uprising which toppled the Libyan leader in 2011.

Alleged Coercion

They assert ex- members of the leader's administration were being singled out with illegal deaths, kidnappings and abuse when the defendant was abducted from his dwelling by armed individuals the following time.

He was taken to an informal prison facility where additional detainees were allegedly beaten and harmed and was by himself in a tiny room when multiple masked individuals presented him a one document of material.

His legal representatives claimed its handwritten contents started with an order that he was to acknowledge to the Pan Am Flight 103 attack and another terror attack.

Substantial Terrorist Events

Mas'ud states he was instructed to remember what it indicated about the incidents and restate it when he was interrogated by another person the next day.

Worrying for his well-being and that of his family, he claimed he thought he had no choice but to comply.

In their reply to the defendant's motion, legal counsel from the American justice department have stated the court was being requested to exclude "highly significant evidence" of Mas'ud's guilt in "several significant terrorist incidents directed at US citizens."

Authorities Counterarguments

They claim Mas'ud's account of events is unconvincing and untrue, and contend that the information of the statement can be corroborated by credible independent proof gathered over numerous periods.

The government attorneys state the suspect and additional previous officials of Gaddafi's secret service were held in a covert prison managed by a militia when they were questioned by an seasoned Libya's law enforcement official.

They argue that in the disorder of the post-uprising era, the location was "the safest environment" for Mas'ud and the other operatives, accounting for the conflict and resistance attitude dominant at the period.

Questioning Details

According to the law enforcement official who interviewed the defendant, the facility was "efficiently operated", the inmates were not bound and there were no evidence of torture or intimidation.

The officer has said that over two days, a self-assured and healthy Mas'ud described his involvement in the explosions of the aircraft.

The federal authorities has also asserted he had confessed constructing a device which exploded in a West Berlin club in the mid-1980s, causing the deaths of multiple persons, encompassing several American servicemen, and harming many more.

Additional Claims

He is also alleged to have described his participation in an conspiracy on the life of an unidentified American diplomatic official at a public event in Pakistan.

Mas'ud is reported to have explained that an individual accompanying the American figure was wearing a explosive-laden overcoat.

It was the suspect's assignment to activate the explosive but he chose not to do so after discovering that the individual carrying the coat did not realize he was on a fatal assignment.

He opted "not to activate the button" even though his supervisor in the agency being with him at the time and inquiring what was {going on|happening|occurring