New Lockerbie suspect story raises questions over Libya’s guilt

The former Libyan intelligence operative accused of building the bomb used in a terrorist attack in 1988 has now claimed that his confession was coerced and is false, according to the BBC on September 17th.

On December 21st of 1988, a Pan Am flight to New York exploded while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie due to a bomb in the cargo hold.

All 259 passengers and crew were killed, with 190 of them being from the United States.

Masud allegedly served as a bombmaker for the Libyan intelligence agency, but in 2023, he pleaded not guilty.

His confession to playing a key role in the attack was given in 2012, according to the FBI, one year after the collapse of the regime in Libya led by dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The confession was made public in 2020.

The story Masud has now revealed to his legal team is that he was abducted from his home by armed men and held in an unofficial prison facility while being denied procedural rights.

He claims that three masked men who forced him to memorise the details of the Lockerbie attack and another terrorist attack were anti-Gaddafi revolutionaries.

Gaddafi’s regime is said to have controlled Libya through extrajudicial killings, intimidation, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and after the 2011 revolution, there were strong feelings across the nation of anger towards those associated with Gaddafi.

Masud, having allegedly worked for Gaddafi as an intelligence operative, feared for his family’s lives after they were threatened by those masked men who forced him to confess to these crimes.

His defence lawyers stated that “he had no choice but to comply. He had ample reason to fear for himself; before his seizure, he had personally witnessed beatings in others prisons.”

“But he was more afraid for his family. He had six children and felt they still had lives left to live. If he resisted, his children could be assaulted or killed. He personally knew about a friend’s daughter who had been shot before his abduction.”

This new story may well lead to the American court finding Masud’s confession inadmissible, which is what his lawyers have requested.

Other recent developments in the trial that could lead to Masud being found innocent includes new DNA findings. On June 30th a major forensic breakthrough was reported, concerning DNA traces in the lining of the suitcase holding the bomb.

Although Libya has always been blamed for the Lockerbie attack, over the decades since there have been alternative theories raised suggesting involvement from Iran and Syria.

BBC/Maghrebi