A FRIEND of Moussa Koussa, who claims he helped to co-ordinate his defection to the UK, has said the former Libyan foreign minister will be very co-operative in giving key evidence about the Lockerbie bombing.
Noman Benotman, who now works as an analyst with the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-terrorism think-tank, made it clear that Koussa would be willing to open up to the British authorities about Libya’s past involvement in international terrorism, including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which claimed 270 lives.
His comments came as it emerged a key insider in Colonel Gaddafi’s regime had been in London this week for days of secret talks with British officials, and more reports appeared about other senior figures in the regime fleeing Tripoli.
The Crown Office and Dumfries and Galloway Police have already put in requests to interview Koussa, dubbed the “envoy of death”, about the Lockerbie atrocity, but it is thought the defector’s debriefing by MI6 at a safehouse somewhere in the Home Counties will take days if not weeks to complete.
As soon as the senior regime figures get the chance to defect, they will do
Mr Benotman, who said he helped Koussa escape from Tripoli, said it would “not be an issue” for the UK Government to get information about Libyan-sponsored terrorism, including the bombing of a UTA flight in Niger in 1989.
He said: “It’s going to be very easy to handle all these issues regarding Lockerbie, UTA and the IRA as well. It’s not a problem, I’m sure about this.”
He said Koussa “is the regime – everybody knows that” and that he was one of only five people during the last 30 years who was close to Gaddafi.
“I want to emphasise ... why he chose London. It’s very important. He believes in the system of justice regardless of the outcomes. He is very co-operative regarding crucial intelligence,” added Mr Benotman, who was the leader of the jihadist and anti-Gaddafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group before he worked for the Quilliam Foundation.
First Minister Alex Salmond said police want to talk to Koussa “on the basis of information that might be provided” and that there was no suggestion at this stage that he was being treated as a suspect.
“Nonetheless, there is every reason to believe that this individual can shed light on the Lockerbie atrocity and the circumstances that led up to it,” Mr Salmond said.
The French authorities said they too wanted to question Koussa over the 1989 bombing of the flight in Niger which killed 170 people, including 54 French nationals.
Following reports that Mohammed Ismail, secretary to Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, had visited London, prompting speculation the regime is looking for an exit strategy, Abdul Ati al Obeidi, a former prime minister of Libya, said: “We are trying to talk to the British, the French and the Americans to stop the killing of people. We are trying to find a mutual solution.”
Ibrahim Dabbash, Libya’s former deputy ambassador at the United Nations, suggested more defections were in the pipeline. He said senior regime figures wanted to get out: “As soon as they get the chance to defect, they will do”.
Already, as well as Koussa, Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former Foreign Minister, has defected to Egypt. Unconfirmed reports suggested Foreign Office officials were in secret talks with at least six Gaddafi henchmen and while Downing Street declined to comment, one senior Whitehall source told The Herald: “It’s plausible there will be more.”
Earlier, David Cameron’s spokesman was adamant that “no deals” were on the table in light of the visit to London this week of the Gaddafi envoy. He added: “We are sending them all one very clear message: Gaddafi must go.”
At Westminster, MPs who are due to go into a three-week Easter recess from next Tuesday demanded to be updated on Koussa. They are due to debate Libya next week.
During a debate yesterday on Libya in the House of Lords, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke, the former Scottish Secretary, criticised what she said had, in some quarters, been a “euphoric welcome” of Koussa to the UK.
Accepting defectors could prove useful, she added: “But please, do not let us forget the consequence of Lockerbie not just for the international community but on a quiet and respectable Scottish town that will forever be known as the base of one of the worst atrocities this country has ever known.”
Her Labour colleague, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the former Nato Secretary General, warned European troops might be needed to finish off the Gaddafi regime.
“If the attrition goes on and civilians can’t be saved just from the air, are we simply going to stand back if troops on the ground could be decisive?” he asked.
The former Defence Secretary added the soldiers would not be American but European.
He noted: “Europe had better wake up to the historic chall-enge it faces.”
