American government attorneys have stated that a Libyan national suspect voluntarily confessed to participating in attacks against American targets, including the 1988's Pan Am Flight 103 incident and an failed conspiracy to target a US public figure using a booby-trapped coat.
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi is reported to have acknowledged his participation in the murder of 270 people when Pan Am 103 was exploded over the Scotland's town of Lockerbie, during interrogation in a Libya's holding center in 2012.
Identified as the defendant, the senior individual has stated that several disguised persons pressured him to deliver the statement after threatening him and his family.
His lawyers are working to block it from being employed as evidence in his legal proceedings in DC in 2025.
In response, attorneys from the American justice department have said they can demonstrate in legal proceedings that the admission was "voluntary, trustworthy and accurate."
The existence of Mas'ud's alleged confession was originally disclosed in 2020, when the United States declared it was indicting him with building and priming the IED utilized on Flight 103.
The father-of-six is accused of being a former colonel in Libyan intelligence agency and has been in US confinement since 2022.
He has stated not responsible to the charges and is expected to face trial at the US court for the the capital in spring.
His legal team are working to block the jury from being informed about the admission and have submitted a request asking for it to be withheld.
They assert it was secured under duress following the overthrow which overthrew the former dictator in 2011.
They claim former officials of the leader's administration were being victimized with illegal deaths, seizures and abuse when the suspect was taken from his dwelling by armed individuals the subsequent time.
He was transported to an informal detention center where other inmates were reportedly beaten and harmed and was alone in a small space when three hooded persons gave him a single document of paper.
His lawyers stated its scripted contents commenced with an order that he was to admit to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and another terrorist incident.
Mas'ud asserts he was told to remember what it said about the occurrences and restate it when he was interviewed by another person the next day.
Being concerned for his security and that of his children, he claimed he felt he had no alternative but to obey.
In their response to the defense's request, lawyers from the federal prosecutors have stated the court was being petitioned to withhold "very relevant testimony" of the defendant's responsibility in "two substantial extremist events directed at Americans."
They say the defendant's account of occurrences is unbelievable and inaccurate, and contend that the details of the statement can be corroborated by reliable independent proof assembled over many decades.
The legal authorities claim the defendant and fellow former members of the former leader's secret service were held in a hidden holding center managed by a faction when they were interrogated by an experienced Libya's police officer.
They contend that in the disorder of the post-revolution time, the center was "the protected environment" for Mas'ud and the other agents, accounting for the hostility and opposition attitude widespread at the time.
Based to the investigator who interviewed Mas'ud, the center was "efficiently operated", the inmates were not restrained and there were no signs of torture or coercion.
The investigator has stated that over two days, a self-assured and well Mas'ud detailed his involvement in the bombings of Flight 103.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also asserted he had admitted creating a device which went off in a German nightclub in the mid-1980s, killing multiple individuals, comprising two US military personnel, and wounding numerous more.
He is also said to have described his role in an conspiracy on the life of an unnamed US foreign minister at a public event in the Asian country.
The defendant is alleged to have stated that a person accompanying the American official was bearing a explosive-laden coat.
It was the suspect's mission to detonate the bomb but he chose not to do so after finding out that the man carrying the item did not realize he was on a fatal assignment.
He opted "not to push the trigger" although his supervisor in the secret service being alongside at the time and questioning what was {going on|happening|occurring