Question Former Libyan Minister

Scotland Wants to Question Former Libyan Minister

ALISTAIR MACDONALD DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS AINSLEY THOMSON SAM DAGHER

Scottish prosecutors say they want to interview Libya's former foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, who resigned from his post and flew to the U.K. Wednesday, in connection with the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Earlier Thursday, U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said Mr. Koussa wouldn't be offered immunity from British and international justice.

"We have notified the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that the Scottish prosecuting and investigating authorities wish to interview Mr. Koussa in connection with the Lockerbie bombing," a Crown Office spokeswoman said.

"The investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and we will pursue all relevant lines of inquiry," she said.

Former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner as it flew over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Mr. Koussa has at times been alleged to have had a role in the bombing. The regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi always argued it had nothing to do with the attack, which killed 270 people, and that Mr. al-Megrahi was innocent. Mr. Koussa also played a role in negotiating the release of Mr. al-Megrahi on Aug. 20, 2009.

Associated Press

Mr. Koussa in Tripoli last week.

Mr. Koussa's defection marks the biggest diplomatic setback for Col. Gadhafi since start of the Libyan uprising, and raises hopes among allied officials that other members of the leader's close circle may follow suit.

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim confirmed Thursday the resignation of Mr. Koussa, saying Mr. Koussa had first asked to go to Tunisia on a sick leave, and was allowed to do so, but then Mr. Koussa made his decision to resign there.

Mr. Ibrahim said Mr. Koussa "asked for a sick leave because he was exhausted physically, had diabetes and high blood pressure." He added, "The information we have is that he's tired, exhausted, and he resigned. That's it."

He told reporters in Tripoli that he was unaware of other government officials resigning from their posts or seeking medical treatment in Tunisia. Earlier Thursday, there was speculation that Shukri Ghanem, the country's oil minister, was laying the groundwork to defect, but Mr. Ibrahim dismissed that rumor. Mr. Ibrahim played down the significance of Mr. Koussa's departure and declined to characterize it as a defection.

Mr. Koussa arrived in Britain from Tunisia Wednesday. He traveled on a private plane under his own free will and was met by British officials, British officials said.

British officials said Mr. Koussa is at a "safe location" in the U.K. and meeting with a variety of British officials, including intelligence officials and diplomats who had worked at the British embassy in Tripoli.

"His resignation shows that Gadhafi's regime, which has already seen significant defections to the opposition, is fragmented, under pressure and crumbling from within," Mr. Hague said in a news conference Thursday.

Mr. Hague revealed that Mr. Koussa had been his contact in the Libyan regime and that he had spoken to him on Friday. Mr. Hague, though, was aware that Mr. Koussa was coming to Britain only a "very short time in advance," one British official said.

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Prime Minister David Cameron had signed off on Mr. Koussa being allowed into the U.K., and Britain had been in contact with the U.S. over the defection, a Downing Street spokesman said.

Mr. Koussa negotiated his exit from Libya in Tunisia, where he met with French diplomats earlier this week, one European government official said. On Wednesday, Mr. Ibrahim, Libya's spokesman, had said Mr. Koussa was in Tunisia on a diplomatic mission.

Col. "Gadhafi must be asking himself who will be abandoning him" next, Mr. Hague said.

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U.S. officials said Mr. Koussa's move was an example of growing splits inside Col. Gadhafi's inner circles. In recent days, Mr. Koussa and other senior Libyan officials have reached out to at least 12 countries to discuss either defections or ways to end the Libyan conflict, according to these officials. There is hope inside the Obama administration that a larger rebellion could take place as these senior officials leave.

"This is a very significant defection and an indication that people around Gadhafi think the writing's on the wall," said a senior U.S. official.

Mr. Koussa, thought to be in his late 50s, was Col. Gadhafi's spy chief for approximately two decades, a period of time when Libya was suspected to be behind a string of terrorist attacks in Europe that killed Libyan dissidents and foreigners.

Some Libyan opposition leaders believe that Mr. Koussa had a hand in organizing the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing in 1988, although he has never been indicted for that attack.

Mr. Koussa, who took over as foreign minister in March 2009, appears to have been a key participant in Libya's decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs, which led to the lifting of international sanctions against his homeland, according to diplomats.

He played a key role in reaching deals to compensate the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the bombing of a French airliner the following year, removing one of the biggest obstacles to normalize relations with the West.

Mr. Koussa has at times been alleged to have had a role in the bombing, but Scottish prosecutors declined to comment on whether they would ask to question him.

"We continue to liaise closely with other justice authorities in relation to the ongoing investigation into the involvement of others with Mr Megrahi in the Lockerbie bombing," a spokeswoman for Scotland's Crown Office said.

Two years ago Mr. Koussa participated in negotiations with Britain over the release of Mr. Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

For the past several weeks in Tripoli, Mr. Koussa had been one of the main spokesmen briefing foreign journalists about the conflict in Libya. He had referred to the rebel leaders in Benghazi as criminals and al Qaeda supporters.

Mr. Koussa's last public appearance was on March 19, the day allied forces first launched airstrikes against Col. Gadhafi's military targets.

That day he read to reporters in Tripoli a terse statement reaffirming a cease-fire that was hardly being observed by Col. Gadhafi's forces on the ground.

Earlier this month, the U.S Treasury Department froze the assets of Mr. Koussa in accordance with the U.N. sanctions imposed on the Libyan regime.

The U.S. Treasury also prohibited U.S. citizens from doing business with him and 16 Libyan companies in the aviation, banking, investment and oil sectors which are believed to have ties to Mr. Koussa and other regime members.