A Libyan man accused of building the explosive that brought down doomed Pam Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 claims he was forced into making a false confession.
Alleged bomb-maker Abu Agila Masud Kheir Al-Marimi is due to stand trial in the United States next year over his involvement in what remains Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity killing 270 people.
But the 74-year-old claims he was being held captive in Libya when three masked men ordered him to memorise information about the destruction of the American airliner and he only did so because they threatened his family.
His lawyers have filed a ‘motion to suppress statements’ saying the ‘circumstances’ of his arrest, ‘incommunicado detention’, and ‘captivity in a system well known for human rights abuses’ renders his confession ‘inadmissible’.
The defence team states: ‘Mr. Al-Marimi was abducted by armed men, separated from his family, held incommunicado in an unofficial prison facility, and denied procedural rights.
