A US judge has ruled that a copy of Abu Agila Masud’s alleged confession can be used at his trial over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. His lawyers had sought to exclude the statement, taken in Libya, because prosecutors could not produce the original.
Judge Dabney Friedrich rejected the request after the court heard that prosecutors had tried unsuccessfully to obtain the original in Libya. Masud says he was forced to make a false confession while detained in 2012, and his lawyers have challenged the statement.
Masud denies two charges of destroying an aircraft resulting in death. His trial is due to begin on 19 January, after an earlier August start was postponed following the disclosure of new evidence.
Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 people on the ground.
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