Judge allows Lockerbie suspect's alleged confession to be used at US trial

By

Scotland home affairs correspondent

An alleged confession by a suspect in the Lockerbie bombing will be allowed as evidence in a trial in the United States, a judge has ruled.

Lawyers for Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi had asked for the contested statement to be ruled inadmissible, claiming it was false and made under duress.

But the document will now form a central part of the prosecution case when the postponed trial begins at a federal court in Washington DC later this month.

Libyan Al-Marimi, also known as Masud, has denied making and priming the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Dumfries and Galloway on 21 December 1988.

All 259 passengers and crew on the airliner were killed, along with another 11 people who died when the wreckage fell on their homes in Lockerbie.

Of the victims, 190 were American and 43 from the UK. It remains the deadliest plane crash and terror attack in British history.

A group representing relatives of American victims of the atrocity described judge's decision as outcome as "another step in our long fight for justice".

The existence of Al-Marimi's alleged confession was first revealed in 2020 when the US government announced it was charging him over the bombing.

An FBI criminal complaint said he had freely admitted his involvement when he was questioned by a police officer in a Libyan detention facility in 2012.

Al-Marimi is said to have told the officer he acted alongside fellow members of the Libyan intelligence service, under the orders of senior officials.

According to the officer's account, Al-Marimi said he transported the bomb hidden in a suitcase from Libya to Malta, where he met two accomplices.

One was Abdulbasset Al Megrahi, the Libyan agent convicted of playing a central role in the plot at the first Lockerbie trial 25 years ago.

The second was said to be Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, a former Libyan Arab Airline official who was cleared by the same Scottish court.

The officer said Al-Marimi admitted setting the bomb timer so the explosion would occur 11 hours later, before handing the suitcase to Fhimah at Malta's Luqa airport.

Fhimah placed it onto a conveyor belt, introducing the unaccompanied bag into the international baggage system, tagged to be flown to the US.

Later that night, at 31,000 ft, it exploded in the forward hold of Pan Am 103.

Al-Marimi is alleged to have claimed he was later congratulated in person by the late Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi, for carrying out "a great national duty" against the Americans.

The Washington court has heard that the Libyan police officer - referred to as Jamal - kept a handwritten document containing the confession and a carbon copy of the statement in a safe in his home.

In 2015, he handed them over to the Libyan Attorney General's Office, who gave a copy of the confession to prosecutors from Scotland's Crown Office two years later. They shared it with the Americans.

The team of public defenders representing Al-Marimi at the District Council of the District of Columbia asked for the alleged confession to be excluded from his trial.

Jamal gave evidence in person at a hearing in the United States as judge Dabney Friedrich considered whether the statement should be allowed as evidence.

Prosecutors argued its highly-detailed contents could be corroborated to an extent unlikely with a fabricated confession.

At one point, Judge Friedrich instructed the US government to get hold of the original handwritten document and the carbon copy, only to be told the authorities in Tripoli couldn't find them.

Jamal now looks likely to be called as a witness at the trial, giving the jury the chance to hear his testimony for themselves, and the defence an opportunity to challenge his version of events.

A statement released by the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 said: "We are pleased with today's ruling.

"While we have always trusted the [US] government had a strong case, this only reinforces it.

"We look forward to gaining more information about the truth of what happened... this is another step in our long fight for justice.

"Jamal's courage to come forward with this confession and his testimony during the motion to suppress hearing does not go unnoticed by family members."

A grandfather in his seventies, Al-Marimi has been in American custody since 2022 and has pled not guilty to charges of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death.

Jury selection for his trial is scheduled to get under way at the end of this month.

Of the 259 passengers and crew who died on board the airliner, 190 were from the United States, where Al-Marimi will be tried.

The only Lockerbie trial so far took place between May 2000 and January 2001, when three Scottish judges convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdulbasset al-Megrahi of playing a key role in the plot.

Megrahi was jailed for life but released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died three years later at home in Tripoli.