Lockerbie bombing: Suspect's alleged confession to be used in US trial, judge rules
Families of the victims of the UK’s greatest terror attack say it is ‘another step in our long fight for justice’.
An alleged confession by a Lockerbie bombing suspect will now be used as evidence at a US trial after a judge ruling.
Lawyers for Abu Agila Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi had asked for the statement to be ruled inadmissible, claiming it was false and made under duress.
The Libyan national has denied making and priming the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over the Dumfriesshire town on 21 December 1988. All 259 passengers and crew were killed, along with 11 people who died in the town, and it remains the deadliest terror attack in British history.
However, the confession will now form a central part of the prosecution’s case when the postponed trial gets underway in Washington DC later this month.
A group representing relatives of the American victims say the judge’s decision is “another step in our long fight for justice”.
The confession was first revealed in 2020 when the US Government said it was charging him over the bombing. The FBI said he 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 that he acted alongside members of the Libyan intelligence service and was under the orders of senior officials.
The confession says he transported the bomb in a hidden suitcase from Libya to Malta, where he met two accomplices. One of these was Abdulbasset Al Megrahi, the Libyan agent who was convicted 25 years ago. The second is said to be Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, a former Libyan Arab Airline official who was cleared by a Scottish court.
The confession says Al-Marimi admitted to setting the bomb timer so it would explode 11 hours later, and then handed the suitcase to Fhimah at Luqa Airport in Malta. Fhimah is then said to have placed it onto a conveyor belt where it was tagged to be flown to the US. It exploded later that night over the town of Lockerbie.
Al-Marimi is then alleged to have been personally congratulated by the late dictator Colonel Gaddafi for carrying out “a great national duty” against the Americans.
The Washington court says the Libyan police officer kept a handwritten document of the confession and a carbon copy in a safe in his hope, and then handed it over to the Libyan Attorney General’s Office in 2015 who then handed it to Scotland’s Crown Office two years later.
The Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 group 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.
“[Police officer] 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.”
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