// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Lockerbie accused's alleged confession can be used in trial, US judge rules
Pan Am flight 103 was destroyed over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988
A copy of an alleged confession by the Libyan accused of building the bomb that brought down an American airliner over Lockerbie 38 years ago can be used at his trial, a US judge has ruled.
Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, 74, has claimed he was forced by three masked men into making a false confession while in custody in Libya.
Masud's lawyers asked a federal court in Washington to rule the alleged confession inadmissible in advance of his trial in April next year as it was not the original document.
But Judge Dabney Friedrich denied the motion, meaning it can be used in evidence.
Media outlet Libyan Review previously broadcast footage of Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi in a US prison
The accused, dressed in a green prison jumpsuit, was in court where he listened to proceedings through an interpreter.
Mas'ud has denied building and priming the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, killing 270 people.
He has insisted that the masked men men ordered him to memorise information about the destruction of Pan Am 103 and another terror attack.
Mas'ud said he repeated what he had learned to a Libyan official, under duress, after the men threatened his family.