By Iona Young
Copyright dailyrecord
A Libyan national on trial for building the bomb that took down Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie nearly 40 years ago claims he was forced into making a false confession. Abu Agila Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi has said he was in custody in Libya when three masked men ordered him to memorise information about the destruction of the American flight and another terror attack, reports the BBC. The 74-year-old said he repeated what he had learned to a Libyan official, under duress, after the men threatened his family. Masud’s lawyers have asked a federal court in Washington to rule the alleged confession inadmissible in advance of his trial in April next year. Details of the alleged confession were made public five years ago after the US department of justice announced it was charging Mas’ud over the explosion that killed 259 passengers and crew and a further 11 people in the Dumfries and Galloway town when wreckage of the Boeing 747 fell on their homes. It remains the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United Kingdom . Masud, is described as a joint citizen of Libya and Tunisia. He has been receiving treatment for a non-life threatening medical condition. A criminal complaint summary compiled by the FBI claimed he had admitted playing a key role in the attack when he was in detention in 2012, following the collapse of Colonel Gaddafi’s regime the previous year. The bureau said Mas’ud had talked of being involved in the plot along with other members of the Libyan intelligence service. Afterwards, he was said to have been congratulated in person by the Libyan dictator, who had told him he had performed “a great national duty” against the Americans.
