Questions for Koussa

[In an article by foreign editor David Pratt in today's edition of the Sunday Herald, Dr Jim Swire talks about what the Scottish police and prosecutors should ask Moussa Koussa (if they ever get access to him). The following are excerpts:]

Scottish prosecutors and police are due to meet Foreign Office officials tomorrow to discuss access to the high-profile Libyan defector and former foreign minister Moussa Koussa. (...)

Speaking to the Sunday Herald, Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, said he was pleased that Koussa had arrived in the UK but warned that difficulties lay ahead.

“He certainly knows a lot. A problem will be interpreting what he says. It will be difficult to accept whatever information he gives. But he is a potential source for vital information,” said Swire. He also confirmed his own lawyers were seeking to question Koussa. Asked about the enquiries Swire’s legal team might put to the Libyan, he said that there were three categories of questions: Why convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi was surrendered in the first place? [Whether] the regime was involved in the Lockerbie plot? How did they carry it out?

Swire said: “He [Koussa] will know the answers to these conundrums. Whether he talks about them, I don’t know. We have to be very careful in interpreting everything he says. He has a lot to lose if he gets it wrong. He will be a target for expatriate Libyans.”

He also emphasised the need for Scottish police and prosecutors to question Koussa, saying it was important if they were to “maintain the appearance of an ongoing investigation”. He added: “The Scots have major problems now. A court found a man guilty when they shouldn’t have done so. That causes problems for a lot of people in the Scottish judicial hierarchy, many of whom have gone from being junior at the time of Lockerbie to being kingpins in the system. So if this case gets blown open by Moussa Koussa, they have careers to lose.”