Sunday 23 October 2011

Gaddafi's spy chief 'personally tortured' prisoners

[This is the headline over a report published today on the BBC News website.  It reads in part:]

Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief who fled to Britain in March personally tortured political prisoners in Libya, the BBC's Panorama has been told.

Moussa Koussa was the slain ex-leader's right hand man and the key liaison with British intelligence in the aftermath of 9/11 when Libya sought new allies.

He has also been accused of involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

The BBC traced Koussa to a luxury hotel in Qatar but he refused to respond to the new allegations of torture.

In Libya, Muftah Al Thawadi told the programme that he was personally tortured by Koussa in 1996 in Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison.

"While I was being questioned Moussa Koussa was electrocuting me in my neck with the electric rod," he said of the interrogation.

In subsequent years, Moussa Koussa played a lead role in negotiations with British and American intelligence services over Libya's move to denounce terrorism and give up its weapons of mass destruction.

After the fall of Tripoli in early September, workers from Human Rights Watch uncovered documentation in Moussa Koussa's former office that revealed the extent of his ties to western intelligence services relating to the War on Terror.

The documentation revealed details of the kidnapping and rendition of suspected terrorists. (...)

Mr Thawadi said that, in the case of Moussa Koussa, it was time Western governments acknowledged who they were doing business with and forced him to face justice.

"He is a murderer and a criminal and his only concern was that this corrupt regime which ruled Libya with iron and fire should remain in power. Moussa Koussa practised torture.

"It is imperative that the West, whether it is government or people, must hand over this criminal to justice and he must receive his punishment," he added. (...)

Panorama: "Britain, Gaddafi and the Torture Trail", BBC One, Monday, 24 October at 2030BST and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.

1 comment:

  1. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011, doc. nr.7053.rtf. (google translation, german/english:

    BBC reproach action against Libya's former intelligence chief Moussa Koussa (1994 to 2009) with liable in matters of torture and its personally tortured prisoners in Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison ?? -- I will not comment.
    Today's BBC allegations against Koussa must be evaluated by a court of legal subjects.

    The facts in the uncovered documentation from Human Rights Watch today show that USA's intelligence agency CIA and the UK intelligence service MI6 are also involved closely with Moussa Koussa's work at that time..

    BBC say Koussa has also been accused of involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing !
    It is striking again, that BBC blamed in its report Moussa Koussa's involvement in the bombing of Pan Am 103, "lump-sum" without concrete evidences and untrue claims !
    On 30 March 2011, Mr Koussa departed from Tunesia on a Swiss-registered private jet to Farnborough Airfield at Great Britain. At this time Koussa was no longer the represent of the Libyan government.

    It is understood Koussa spent a week being debriefed by MI6 at a safe house before being allowed to go free. He was questioned by Crown and police Dumfries and Galloway 1988 about the bombing of PanAm 103 as a crucial "Lockerbie witness".
    William Hague, the foreign secretary, gave the assurance that Koussa would not be given immunity from prosecution. Mr. Koussa was not indicted and have received a EU visa.
    Now Mr Koussa had been removed from the EU sanctions list and received its blocked money free; which is a good sign for Abdelbaset Al Megrahi and also for the new Libya 'NTC'...

    by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.

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