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y on the daily mail website a libyan accused of building the bomb that blew up pam am flight 103 over lockerbie was in the safest place when he voluntarily admitted his involvement in the atrocity prosecutors have said abu agila masud kheir al marimi claims he was forced into making a false confession after he was held captive in libya by men who threatened his family but u s prosecutors argue that there were no signs of coercion or torture and that the libyan officer who interviewed him was unarmed in court papers they state that the 74 year old known as masud was housed in the same room as several other men and appeared to the officer to be in good health and to have access to necessities and to news about the outside world through a television this is contrary to claims by masud who is due to stand trial in washington dc in april over his role in the 1988 terror attack which killed 270 people that he was kept in isolation he also claims that while in custody he witnessed others being beaten and abused prosecutors however state based on the officer s observations the facility that the defendant was held at was one of the best available during the chaos of the post revolution period and it was the safest place for the defendant given the extent of street violence and anti gaddafi sentiment prevailing at the time they add that the officer observed no signs of torture or coercion and that masud was interviewed in a typical office type room during which time he was afforded a lunch break and the proper facilities to pray the officer asked the defendant whether he consented to be interviewed and he freely gave his consent masud s defence team 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 but prosecutors have urged the court not to accept this fictitious account the bomb maker for the libyan external security organisation was extradited to the us in 2022 after allegedly admitting to building the lockerbie device posted by robert black at 08 32 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday 18 september 2025 lockerbie bombing accused masud says he was forced into false confession what follows is excerpted from a report published today on the bbc news website the libyan accused of building the bomb that brought down an american airliner over lockerbie 36 years ago has claimed he was forced into making a false confession abu agila mas ud kheir al marimi 74 has said he was in custody in libya when three masked men ordered him to memorise information about the destruction of pan am 103 and another terror attack referred to as mas ud by prosecutors he 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 first made public five years ago after the us department of justice announced it was charging mas ud over the atrocity which claimed the lives of 270 people on 21 december 1988 with just seven months to go until the scheduled start of mas ud s trial public defenders acting on his behalf have lodged a motion with the district court asking a judge to rule that his confession should not be allowed as evidence the libyan has pled not guilty to the charges against him but the motion to suppress reveals for the first time his version of what led to the alleged jailhouse confession setting the scene the motion quotes a us department of state report which said gaddafi s regime had controlled libya through extrajudicial killings and intimidation torture arbitrary arrest and detention the document says that after the revolution there was a climate of anger and retaliation against those associated or thought to be associated with gaddafi contemporary reports by us government officials recount more incidents of arbitrary and unlawful killings kidnappings torture and other cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment the defence lawyers say just as a black man accused of killing a white man in jim crow era arkansas would fear mob violence so would a libyan who allegedly worked for gaddafi have feared retaliation against himself and his family in post revolution libya it was against that background according to mas ud that he was abducted from his home by armed men separated from his family and his medication held incommunicado in an unofficial prison facility and denied procedural rights he says he saw bodies lying in the streets when he was being driven to the prison and while in custody and encountered other inmates who had been beaten and abused mas ud has told his legal team that he was alone in a small room when three men in civilian clothes came in they were unarmed but wearing face coverings and did not identify themselves he says he was certain the men who handed him the piece of paper were anti gadaffi revolutionaries the single handwritten sheet began with an order that mr al marimi confess to the lockerbie incident as well as another terrorist attack his defence lawyers claim the men told him to read over the details and to repeat what it said when he was questioned by someone else the next day they told him he had to answer the questions with what was on the paper otherwise bad things would happen to him or his family mr al marimi felt he had no choice but to comply he had ample reason to fear for himself before his seizure he had personally witnessed beatings in other prisons the lawyers say a frightened mas ud did as he was told when he was questioned by another man the next evening they say that when presented with similar evidence of coercion american courts have found custodial statements involuntary and inadmissible under the fifth amendment of the us constitution whether they were made in the united states or abroad the defence has asked the court to order the suppression of the alleged statements and has requested a hearing so the issue can be decided the fbi has said that the libyan official who noted mas ud s confession in 2012 is prepared to give evidence at his trial prosecutors from the us department of justice have not yet responded to the claims made on mas ud s behalf posted by robert black at 07 58 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday 12 august 2025 sturgeon considered resigning over lockerbie bomber release this is the heading over a section of an article published in today s edition of the times under the headline ten things we learnt from nicola sturgeon s memoir it reads as follows the decision to free abdelbaset al megrahi the only person convicted of the lockerbie bombing almost led to sturgeon s resignation from the government she reveals in one of the biggest decisions taken by salmond s government in a move of global significance megrahi was released and returned to libya on compassionate grounds in august 2009 suffering from terminal prostate cancer he was given a prognosis of three months to live but survived for three years sturgeon recalls bereaved constituents who lost loved ones in the attack informing her that they would see the release of megrahi a betrayal of their loved ones memories and she says she did not support his release or transfer rb opinion polls conducted by scottish local newspapers showed that the scottish public supported by substantial majorities the decision to release megrahi however she bemoans the lack of consultation with the cabinet over the issue and says she was astounded to learn of kenny macaskill then the justice secretary visiting the terrorist in greenock prison she says she later learnt of the decision to release him from newsnight rb the criticism of kenny macaskill s visit to megrahi in prison is misconceived as i commented at the time after megrahi s releases was confirmed sturgeon recalls him arriving like a conquering war hero returning from battle in tripoli with some in the crowd waving saltires rb saif al islam gaddafi who accompanied megrahi on the plane back to tripoli denied that he had received a hero s welcome there was not in fact any official reception for the return of mr megrahi who had been convicted and imprisoned in scotland for the 1988 lockerbie bombing the strong reactions to these misperceptions must not be allowed to impair the improvements in a mutually beneficial relationship between libya and the west when i arrived at the airport with mr megrahi there was not a single government official present state and foreign news media were also barred from the event if you were watching al jazeera the arabic news network at the time the plane landed you would have heard its correspondent complain that he was not allowed by libyan authorities to go to the airport to cover mr megrahi s arrival it is true that there were a few hundred people present but most of them were members of mr megrahi s large tribe extended families being an important element in libyan society they had no official invitation but it was hardly possible to prevent them from coming coincidentally the day mr megrahi landed was also the very day of the annual libyan youth day and many participants came to the airport after seeing coverage of mr megrahi s release on british television but this was not planned indeed we sat in the plane on the tarmac until the police brought the crowd to order posted by robert black at 07 41 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday 8 august 2025 what lockerbie meant for libyans this is the headline over an article by owen schalk just published in the july august 2025 issue of the scottish left review the following are excerpts on december 21 1988 pan am flight 103 from frankfurt to detroit exploded over the rural scottish town of lockerbie raining hellfire on the community s inhabitants eleven people were killed by falling debris all 259 of the plane s occupants died the governments of the united states and the united kingdom pointed the finger at libya in 1992 the united nations security council imposed wide ranging sanctions against libya over the bombing including an air embargo an arms embargo and a ban on the sale of oil equipment to the country in 1996 the us congress tightened sanctions by passing the iran and libya sanctions act these sanctions deprived the jamahiriya of billions in revenue and contributed to the libyan leadership s ill fated decision to open up economically to the west in the early 2000s 37 years after the lockerbie bombing two tv shows aired in britain lockerbie a search for the truth sky studios and the bombing of pan am 103 bbc the production of two tv series about lockerbie almost four decades after the bombing shows the continued public interest in the case s many ins outs and inconsistencies despite this the retrospectives around lockerbie leave out one important piece of the story the libyans themselves namely how they experienced the economic sanctions that resulted from the lockerbie bombing the bombing and the trial initial investigations into the bombing of pan am flight 103 implicated members of the people s front for the liberation of palestine general command pflp gc based in syria the group had apparently executed the bombing on behalf of the iranian government which sought revenge for the destruction of iran air flight 655 a civilian airbus shot down by the uss vincennes on july 3 1988 290 civilians died in the us warship s attack on november 13 1991 the lockerbie investigation abruptly shifted focus from the pflp gc iran to the libyan government jim swire whose daughter died in the bombing of pan am 103 recounted his shock at the sudden turn of events there were hints from various sources of surprises to come but nothing has prepared me for this today iran is forgotten it s all about libya an official story was provided to the public the bombing was revenge for the reagan administration s assassination attempt against muammar qadhafi in 1986 a us attack that had killed dozens of civilians and the libyan leader s infant daughter hana according to the main counternarrative of the lockerbie bombing the us and uk decided to shift blame for the attack to libya because libya unlike iran was more vulnerable to destabilization and less likely to retaliate the libyan government maintained its innocence after years of diplomatic wrangling a trial was held for the accused in the hague two libyans went to trial lamin khalifah fhimah and abdelbaset al megrahi megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment fhimah was acquitted circumstances surrounding the trial remain highly questionable the lockerbie case is a window albeit a cloudy one into the tense relationship between the west and qadhafi s libya readers in the west have a general awareness about what the case meant to the us and the uk however they have little knowledge of what lockerbie meant for libyans themselves the sanctions period in libya the lockerbie sanctions resulted in constricted state revenues which meant unpaid salaries diminishing subsidies and goods shortages inflation rose public infrastructure decayed while a growing number of smugglers and black marketeers sought to resell subsidized goods at higher prices in neighbouring countries corruption became increasingly normalized a system of favours and bribes running through the public administration damaging libyans confidence in their socialist oriented political system as matteo capasso writes the process of egalitarian development that characterized the early jamahiriya was abandoned in the 1990s the structure of the dominant class started to change the effectiveness of the newly democratic structures decreased and this affected the entire political edifice of al jamahiriyah leading to the dramatic increase of socio economic inequalities estimates have been made regarding libyan economic losses from the lockerbie sanctions one found that between 1992 and 1999 the oil sector lost between 18 billion and 33 billion both as lost opportunities and lost revenue meanwhile 8 billion in overseas assets were frozen denying libya the cash needed to buy all kinds of equipment expertise machinery food and medicine a former libyan deputy foreign minister recalled that steps were taken by the libyan government to compile data on economic losses one qadhafi era minister said the lockerbie losses file contained everything including the number of deaths caused by the sanctions some of these deaths resulted from a lack of medical care which forced libyans to take tortuous routes abroad for treatment because of the sanctions writes libyan academic mustafa fetouri people wishing to leave libya had to drive to djerba in tunisia for example and take a flight from there libya s lockerb...