Lockerbie bombing accused loses bid to have case thrown out
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Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi has been in custody since December 2022 A Libyan man accused of building the bomb that brought down an American airliner over Lockerbie more than 24 years ago has lost his bid to have the case thrown out of court.
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Abu Agila Mas'ud al-Marimi had claimed he was the victim of an illegal rendition when he was transferred into US custody from Libya in 2022.
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A US district court judge has ruled that the manner of his removal should not prevent his trial going ahead in Washington in January.
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Marimi has denied playing a key role in the attack on Pan Am 103, which killed 270 people on 21 December 1988.
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Hundreds of people died when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988 His attempt to have the case dismissed was made public through documents lodged with the court in Washington.
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Marimi's lawyers said he was violently abducted from his home in Tripoli in 2022 by armed members of a militia, "in a cloak and dagger operation conducted in the middle of the night".
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They alleged that weeks later, after being held without access to lawyers in a detention centre, he was handed over to FBI agents at an airport in Misrata and flown to the United States.
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Marimi argued the case should be dismissed because the United States had invaded his constitutional rights and violated extradition agreements between the US and Libya.
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Court transcripts obtained by BBC Scotland News have revealed that trial judge Dabney Friedrich rejected the defence motion.
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She referred to a longstanding American legal doctrine, which stipulates that a court's right to hold a trial is not impaired if the suspect has been the subject of a forceful abduction.
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"This rule rests on the principle that due process of law is satisfied when one present in court is convicted of a crime after a fair trial and in accordance with constitutional procedural safeguards," said the judge.
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"Put differently, there's nothing in the Constitution that requires a court to permit a guilty person rightfully convicted to escape justice because he was brought to trial against his will."
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In her ruling, the judge said there were two exceptions to that doctrine.
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One would apply if Marimi had been brought before the court through the US government's "deliberate, unnecessary and unreasonable invasion" of his constitutional rights.
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For that exception to be triggered, the challenged conduct had to be carried out by, or at the direction of, US officials.
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The judge said Marimi's allegations "at best suggest that US government officials exerted pressure on Libyan officials to facilitate a rendition, not that US government officials directed or controlled the challenged conduct."
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The second exception to the doctrine would apply if the US government had violated an extradition agreement which was the only way a suspect could be transferred between the two countries.
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The judge said the US government had invoked two conventions to secure Marimi's appearance in a US court.
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On 21 December 1988, a plane explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
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Almost four decades on, there's fresh evidence.
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Who was really behind the bombing? "Neither the Montreal Convention nor the Terrorists Bombing Convention provides that it is the only way by which one country may gain custody of a national of another country for the purposes of prosecution," she said. "Accordingly, Libya was free to transfer Mr Al-Marimi to the United States using any method it chose."
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The defence and prosecution have fought a series of legal battles in the approach to Marimi's trial, which is now scheduled to get underway on 19 January after three postponements.
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In another ruling, the judge rejected a defence motion to suppress a confession alleged to have been made by Marimi when he was in custody in Libya in 2012.
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According to the FBI, Marimi admitted building the bomb which destroyed Pan Am 103 in an operation carried out by the Libyan intelligence service.
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Marimi has claimed the confession was false and was made under duress.
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The only previous criminal trial related to the Lockerbie bombing 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.
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Megrahi was jailed for life but released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
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He died three years later at home in Tripoli.
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Lockerbie bombing suspect seized from Libya in 'cloak and dagger' operation Lockerbie bombing trial date set as judge warns against further delay I thought the Lockerbie bombing was a closed case until I started asking questions
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