The Libyan accused of orchestrating the Lockerbie bombing, Abu Agila Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, claims he was coerced into making a false confession. Mas’ud, 74, alleges that while in Libyan custody, three masked men forced him to memorize details about the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 attack and another terrorist plot. Threats to his family left him with little choice but to repeat the information to a Libyan official.
Mas’ud’s lawyers have filed a motion in a U.S. federal court seeking to have the confession deemed inadmissible ahead of his April trial. The alleged statements first surfaced publicly in 2018 after the Department of Justice charged him in connection with the bombing that killed 270 people, 190 of them Americans.
The defence argues that Mas’ud faced extreme duress in post-Gaddafi Libya, where arbitrary detention, torture, and violence were widespread. According to the motion, Mas’ud witnessed beatings and feared for his children’s lives, compelling him to comply with the masked men’s instructions.
His legal team points to U.S. precedents in which custodial statements obtained under coercion, even abroad, are considered involuntary and inadmissible under the Fifth Amendment. Prosecutors have yet to respond, though an FBI witness who recorded Mas’ud’s 2012 confession is expected to testify. Mas’ud has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
