Koussa denies Pan Am 103 involvement

[This is the headline over a news item published today on the website of Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm.  It reads as follows:]

Former Libyan intelligence Chief Moussa Koussa has issued a statement denying any involvement in the Pan Am 103 atrocity, affirming for the first time the denials attributed to him from former father of the House Tam Dalyell and Saif Gadaffi, who both also said that Koussa was not involved in the event.

Koussa, who was questioned in a highly choreographed move from the Crown Office, was not detained when he was interviewed in March this year. The Crown Office have revealed nothing about what was discussed at the interview, or whether they believed Koussa had a role to play in the events.

"I also had no involvement of any kind or knowledge of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 or the murder of WPC Fletcher in 1984. I have voluntarily assisted the relevant investigatory authorities with their inquiries in relation to these matters," Koussa said in a statement today.

"I had no involvement in Libya's intelligence and security organisations until my appointment as Head of the External Security Organisation (ESO) in 1994. This was Libya's foreign intelligence agency.

"My appointment reflected Libya's new foreign policy to make a break with the past and my wide experience had placed me in a good position to begin rebuilding fractured international relations. As a result I was responsible for a number of key negotiations and initiatives that improved international relations and led to the lifting of UN Security Council and US sanctions which had been damaging to the Libyan people."

Koussa's statement was made in response to claims broadcast by the BBC that he was personally involved in torturing detainees, a claim he denies.

Koussa previously said the Pan Am 103 event was "none of my doing," a position supported by Saif Gadaffi.

[The full text of Moussa Koussa's statement can be read here.]

Hillary Clinton has no right to interfere in our justice system

[This is the heading over a batch of letters published in today's edition of The Herald.  The first two read as follows:]

If I wrote to US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton demanding that all the uncharged and untried prisoners still held at Guantanamo Bay be set free, or that all the poor wretches who have spent sometimes 20 years under sentence of death in American prisons be released, I doubt if she would reply.

But if she did, it would probably be to tell me that as a foreigner my views were irrelevant as I had no authority to comment on or criticise the US justice system. 

And she would be correct.

So what gives her the right to publicly criticise the Scottish justice system for releasing Abdulbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi on compassionate grounds, and to call for him to be put back in jail in Scotland, or even worse in America (“Clinton calls for Megrahi’s return to jail”, The Herald October 24)? 

The man is dying a slow and painful death from cancer, and would certainly have been dead by now if he had not been treated with expensive drugs manufactured and sold to Libya by an American company. 

Some human compassion would not go amiss, especially since there are still serious doubts about Megrahi’s conviction and the actions of the CIA in procuring the principal evidence for this.

As an avowedly Christian country, American citizens and their politicians too often reveal a very Old Testament thirst for vengeance, and little of the New Testament message of love and forgiveness. Sadly this is also often reflected in the application of US justice.

They would do well to follow instead the example of Scotland, the nation on whose founding principles their own Declaration of Independence is based.

Iain AD Mann

Conservative MSP John Lamont was quoted in The Herald as saying: “The last time Alex Salmond travelled to the Arab states to seek investment for Scotland he discussed the release of Mr Megrahi” (“Salmond trade trip defended against Megrahi claims”, October 25).

As a point of fact, the First Minister has never previously visited any Arab state, which renders the quote inaccurate.

In every regard the Scottish Government dealt with the case of Megrahi according to the rules and regulations of Scots Law, and without any consideration of the economic, political and diplomatic factors that the then Westminster Government based its position on – which as Sir Gus O’Donnell’s report revealed was in favour of Megrahi’s release.

The record demonstrates this beyond doubt. As the First Minister said in his reply to the Qatari ambassador of July 21, 2009: “The decision will be made on judicial grounds alone”; and the minute of his meeting with the Qatari representatives in Edinburgh on June 11, 2009 also makes it abundantly clear that the Megrahi case was being determined as a strictly “judicial matter”.

Exactly the same point was made to the UK, US and Libyan authorities, and indeed to any other interested party.

The issue of a trade mission to help Scottish companies succeed in growth markets is an entirely separate matter, and something to be supported in tough economic times.

There are clearly significant opportunities for Scotland in the region, given that, for example, IMF figures record economic growth of 16 % in Qatar in 2010.

Kevin Pringle,

Senior Special Adviser, First Minister of Scotland

Compare and contrast

A recent article by Dr Jim Swire in the high-circulation student newspaper The Journal entitled "Lockerbie relative: Scotland must review the verdict against Megrahi" can be read here.  A recent article in The Washington Times's Embassy Row blog headlined "Lockerbie avenged" setting out the views of Frank Duggan, president of Victims of Pan Am 103 Inc (not himself a Lockerbie relative) can be read here.

UK to discuss bomber with Libyans

[This is the headline over a Press Association news agency report issued yesterday evening.  It reads in part:]

Ministers will discuss the Lockerbie bomber's fate with their Libyan counterparts following the death of toppled dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, MPs have been told.

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said the legal position of Libyan agent Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi appeared to have been settled, but said it was one of several topics Britain planned to raise with the Arab country's new leadership, including supplying explosives to Irish terrorists and the killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.

Mr Burt told the Commons: "There are two or three legacy issues which need to be dealt with, not only that (Megrahi), but also issues in relation to the provision of Semtex to the IRA and the death of WPC Fletcher.

"All these will be considered. It's an important part of the new bilateral relationship between the UK and Libya, but not all these issues are presently settled.

"The legal position of Mr Al Megrahi appears to have been settled by past actions, but the legacy issues will be examined anew by this Government and the new government of the National Transitional Council." (...)

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has called for Megrahi to be sent back to Scotland in the aftermath of Col Gaddafi's death last week.

[The report on this matter in today's edition of The Herald can be read here.]

And what has this to do with the guilt of Megrahi?

[What follows is the text of an e-mail received by me this evening from the president of Victims of Pan Am 103 Inc, Frank Duggan (not himself a Lockerbie relative):]

Prof Black - this is a mind boggling list of reprehensible acts performed by Gadhafi and his state-sponsored murderers -  your clients. I am sure this will not wind up on your fawning website, but you might just peruse what he has done this year during his attempts to slaughter the citizens who finally rose up against his rule.

This is disgraceful, and so are you.

Frank Duggan

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B-B_2d4pgCD9YWQ5YTNhOTgtNzcyYy00NjY4LTkyZDUtYWJhNjBlZjYxZmRj&hl=en&authkey=COiSmpUN&pli=1

Bromsgrove father of Lockerbie victim remains resolute in quest for truth

[This is the headline over the first part of a special report featuring Dr Jim Swire published today on the website of the Birmingham Mail. The remaining two parts are to be published later. The second part of the special report can now - Wednesday, 26 October - be read here. The third part can now - Thursday, 27 October - be read here.

An article headlined Former Bromsgrove doctor says Gaddafi's involvement in Lockerbie remains unclear published today on the website of the Bromsgrove Advertiser contains the following:]

Dr Jim Swire, formerly of Pikes Pool Lane and whose 23-year-old daughter Flora was killed in the 1988 bombing, has always campaigned for justice for the only man convicted of the atrocity, Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi. 

He suspects Iranian involvement, and believes Lockerbie was used to “get revenge” on Gaddafi. 

Speaking to the Advertiser, Dr Swire said: “I am satisfied al-Megrahi is innocent, but we have no idea whether Gaddafi was ever involved or not. 

“The world was misled about Lockerbie and I still believe Libya is a side issue. 

“The problem we now have is the documents that will come out of Tripoli and Libya, following Gaddafi’s death, need to be checked thoroughly as things could be planted to support the American view.” 

Dr Swire has always campaigned for justice for al-Megrahi ever since attending his trial.(...)

“I am hoping to stir up the Scottish population - it would be a major step,” he said. 

“If Scotland wants to become a separate nation it needs to have a free fair justice system, which requires a review of the Lockerbie verdict.”

Salmond trade trip defended against Megrahi claims

[This is the headline over a report published in today's edition of The Herald.  It reads in part:]

The Scottish Government has been forced to defend a trip Alex Salmond will make to the Middle East this week to promote Scottish business, in the face of continuing criticism over the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

The Scottish Government insists the trade trip is just that – a chance for high-end Scottish firms to make an impact in a wealthy region of the world.

A leading Scots law firm is involved, as is the opening of a Scottish University faculty in the region.

But critics of the decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi from prison last year and allow his return to Libya on compassionate grounds raised questions about the “extent Mr Salmond is willing to go to to cajole Arab financial support”. 

John Lamont, Conservative MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, said: “The last time Alex Salmond travelled to the Arab states to seek investment for Scotland he discussed the release of Mr Megrahi. 

“As he has a history of going off topic it is important that thorough notes and minutes of meetings held on the trip are taken and subsequently published.

A Scottish Government aide responded: “This is astonishing hypocrisy from the Tories. The only people who suggested anything improper to the Scottish Government was the Tory peer Lord Trefgarne, who wanted commercial interests to play a part in a decision in favour of Mr Megrahi’s release, and the Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski who wrote to the Justice Secretary saying Megrahi should be used as a foreign policy ‘bargaining chip’.”

The First Minister said: “Scottish companies are operating in a highly competitive global economy, and they are raising their international aspirations to enable them to become more successful.

“The Middle East offers huge potential and Scottish companies can take advantage of the outstanding opportunities that are available.”

Mr Salmond will open the offices of Scottish international law firm McGrigors in Qatar on Sunday (...) and on Thursday, he will open Heriot-Watt’s new campus outside the city. 

[A similar report in The Scotsman can be read here.]

Man who could hold answers to Lockerbie atrocity found in Qatar

[This is the headline over a report published today on the website of the Birmingham Post.  It reads in part:]

The man who the father of a Midland Lockerbie victim believes could hold crucial answers about the atrocity has been traced to a luxury resort in Qatar.

Musa Kusa is believed to have been an intelligence officer at the time of the 1988 Lockerbie bomb in which 270 people were killed.

He made a high-profile defection to Britain in March and was interviewed by police and Scottish prosecutors investigating the bombing.

He left the country following an EU decision to lift sanctions against him, meaning he no longer faces travel restrictions or an asset freeze. (...)

The Foreign Office said Kusa was a “private individual” who had been interviewed voluntarily.

Dr Jim Swire, from Worcestershire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died in the bombing, said that if anyone could offer any insight into the “huge questions still unanswered” on Libya’s role in Lockerbie, it would be Mr Kusa.

He said: “When I met Musa Kusa in Libya in 1991 it was clear to me he was the guy who was central to the Gaddafi administration.

“He could tell us just as much as Gaddafi about Lockerbie as he was at the core of the regime.

“He was a very, very key figure and we need answers as to why he was allowed to fly back and any probing over his crimes should be done by the International Criminal Court.”

Pamela Dix, who lost her 35-year-old brother Peter in the atrocity, said she was “incensed” at Mr Kusa being allowed to leave Britain in the first place.

She said: “We cannot turn a politically pragmatic blind eye.

“I do not know what Musa Kusa knows or does not know about Lockerbie but he needs to come back to answer those questions.

“I condemn the attitude of the UK Government in the strongest possible terms. A political hands-off attitude is inappropriate.”

Hillary Clinton: We want to see him returned to prison

[According to a transcript just released by the US Department of State, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the course of an interview for ABC's This Week, said the following:]

QUESTION: What about the bomber of Pan Am 104 [sic], al-Megrahi, who was freed and brought back to Libya. Do you want to see him recaptured, re-imprisoned, and if so, where? In Libya or in the United States or in Britain or Scotland?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Christiane, I never thought he should have been released in the first place. I’ve raised this with the highest levels of the TNC. I will raise it with the new Libyan government. We want to see him returned to prison, preferably in Scotland where he was serving the sentence, but if not, elsewhere, because we thought it was a miscarriage of justice that he was released from the sentence that had been imposed for the ghastly bombing of Pan Am 103.

[This story features in a report headed Clinton wants Megrahi back in Scottish jail in the edition of The Herald for Monday 24 October.]

Father of Lockerbie bombing victim says Gaddafi's son must stand trial

[This is the headline over a report published in today's edition of the Sunday Mail (not to be confused with the Mail on Sunday). It reads in part:]

Lockerbie campaigner Jim Swire has called for the son of dead tyrant Colonel Gaddafi to be put on trial to finally reveal the truth about the 1988 atrocity.

Dr Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, believes the dictator’s favourite son will know who was responsible.

In an exclusive interview, he said he feared that documents about Lockerbie being released from Libya could be faked by the CIA. 

He also revealed how he tried to help save the life of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who he doesn’t believe is responsible for the bombing.

Mahmud Nacua, charge d’affaires at the Libyan embassy in London, has promised the new regime will offer full disclosure to the Lockerbie families.

He said all files relating to Lockerbie and Gaddafi’s other crimes would be released.

But Dr Swire said: “I believe we should treat material coming out of Libya just now with great caution. There is a lot of material coming out, but all of it is a little suspect.

“There is an awful lot of people trying to settle scores with Gaddafi. Tripoli is a very dangerous place at the moment, with a lot of people looking someone to get even with, most of them brandishing Kalashnikovs.

“We should be careful about stories coming from Libya just now, even if it is from the Libyan ambassador in London.” (...)

But Dr Swire believes [Megrahi] is innocent and that Iran bombed the jet as revenge for the shooting down of an Iranair flight by a US missile five months earlier.

He said: “The CIA want the story about Libya being responsible for Lockerbie to remain valid in the public’s mind.

“They are perfectly capable of planting documents in Libya, or anywhere else they want to, and making them look authentic. Any documents that come out of that area will have to be vetted to see if they are genuine or not.”

Gaddafi’s favourite son Saif al-Islam, 39, is reported to be fighting for life in hospital after being critically injured during an RAF bombing raid.(...)

Dr Swire said Saif should be tried by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity if he recovers.

Dr Swire said: “I don’t know how, if at all, Gaddafi was involved in the Lockerbie disaster. I am satisfied his man Megrahi had no involvement.

“But some people tell me Gaddafi paid for the Lockerbie bombing. Others have told me he wasn’t involved.

“The way to go would be to get Saif out of Libya and for him to appear before the International Criminal Court.

“Saif knew everything his father was up to. He could, if he wished to, spill the beans about any part his father played in Lockerbie.

“I find it easy to be fond of Libyans, but I don’t think the world would believe a trial in Libya, particularly in its present demoralised and chaotic state, would be a fair one for anyone arraigned over the question of Lockerbie.” (...)

Leading human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, who represented the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, is trying to have Megrahi’s conviction overturned and get a full public inquiry held.

Dr Swire said she has received copies of documents from Libya, passed to her by Human Rights Watch.

Dr Swire said: “She has a stack of paper about eight inches deep and she and her firm will be wading through them.”

[An article by Dr Franklin Lamb on steps being taken to secure that Saif-al Islam Gaddafi survives to stand trial and does not suffer the same fate as his father can be read here.]

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.

Gadhafi's death won't end Lockerbie controversy

[This is the headline over a report published overnight on the website of The Catholic Register.  It reads in part:]

The death of Moammar Gadhafi will do nothing to end years of controversy over the Lockerbie bombing, said the priest who served in the Scottish town in 1988.

Fr Patrick Keegans, now the administrator of St Mary Cathedral in Ayr, Scotland, said he regretted that the Libyan dictator was not allowed to live to stand trial for the "atrocities and crimes" he might have committed.

He also said that Gadhafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, will take to his grave valuable information about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and knowledge of who was truly culpable of the attack. (...)

Gadhafi was captured alive Oct. 20 by rebels in a drainage pipe outside the Libyan city of Sirte. He later died, although reports of how and when he died vary.

In an Oct 21 telephone interview with Catholic News Service, Keegans said Gadhafi "must have had information about who was the Lockerbie bomber," adding that the question of the guilt of the Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the bombing, remained unresolved.

The priest said he would continue to demand a full inquiry into the fairness of al-Megrahi's 2002 trial. The former Libyan intelligence officer was jailed for a minimum of 27 years.

"We would like the truth of what happened even though Gadhafi has died," Keegans said. "It is very convenient for some governments that Gadhafi has died because they clearly had connections with him that were rather suspect.

"I am talking about the British government and the US governments."

All the "evidence points to the innocence" of al-Megrahi, he added. "There was a verdict (of guilty) but that verdict was very, very suspect, and he and all the victims of Lockerbie deserve a full inquiry into the trial ... and a review of all the evidence and other facts that have come to light since then."

 Al-Megrahi, 59, who has maintained his innocence, was released from jail after seven years and returned to Libya in August 2009 on the grounds that he was suffering from prostate cancer and had just months to live. But just weeks ago, he was able gave an interview to Reuters news agency from his bedside in Tripoli. (...)

Keegans, a priest of the diocese of Galloway, befriended al-Megrahi during prison visits and became convinced of his innocence.

Libyan secret files to be made public, says envoy

[A report published today on the website of the London Evening Standard contains the following:]

Yvonne Fletcher's alleged killers will face justice in Libya, the country's top diplomat said today.

In an exclusive interview, Mahmud Nacua told the Standard: "They will face justice in Libya, not in Britain.

"Libya is an independent country, it has its constitution, it has its law, its lawyers."

He also said that "secret files" on the 1984 murder of Pc Fletcher, the Lockerbie bombing and Gaddafi-sponsored assassinations in London will soon be made public.

Relatives demand evidence linking despot to Lockerbie handed over

[This is the headline over an article in today's edition of The Herald.  It reads in part:]

Libya’s new Government must hand over evidence it claims proves Gaddafi’s involvement in the Lockerbie bombing, relatives of those killed have demanded.

Many expressed regret that the brutal dictator could now never reveal what he knew of the atrocity.

But the Libyan rebels faced calls to release all information they hold about the worst terrorist attack ever committed on UK soil, including evidence that led the head of the new Government to claim he had proof of Gaddafi’s guilt.

The calls came as the National Transitional Council (NTC) claimed Gaddafi’s death had “drawn a curtain” over his crimes.

That view appeared to be at odds with that of the Coalition Government, who said contact with the Libyans over Lockerbie was “ongoing”.

There was outrage last month when the NTC claimed that the Lockerbie case was closed.

It followed a request from the Crown Office for help with its inquiries into the bombing.

Following the outcry, however, the rebels changed their mind, saying they would help Scottish prosecutors.

But Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, suggested they were being less than forthcoming.

He said the relatives of those who died had received no help from the NTC, and called on the organisation to disclose everything it knows.

Earlier this year Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the NTC and Gaddafi’s former justice minister, said he had evidence of the dictator’s involvement in the bombing.

Dr Swire said: “The leader of the NTC has claimed that he has evidence implying Gaddafi’s guilt in the Lockerbie atrocity.

“If so maybe we should see it and be able to assess it.”

An “opportunity has been lost” to find out the truth about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 22, 1988, which claimed 270 lives, he said.

Father Patrick Keegans, the priest in Lockerbie at the time of the disaster, agreed.

“It really would have been preferable if he had been captured alive to have been able to bring some light and truth to bear on what happened with Pan Am 103,” he said. “Some governments will be relieved because they may have been implicated.”

But Professor Robert Black, QC, the architect of the Camp Zeist trial which convicted Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al Megrahi of the Lockerbie bombing, and who believes that the Libyan is the victim of a miscarriage of justice, said: “I don’t think this really makes a difference to the Lockerbie case.

“If people are expecting that lots of new information will now become available, I simply don’t think that is going to happen.

“You have got to appreciate where I am coming from on this, that Megrahi wasn’t involved [in Lockerbie] and I have seen no convincing evidence that Libya was involved.”

Speaking about Gaddafi, he said: “There is absolutely no debate that he was heavily engaged in terrorist activities and he may well have known about how Lockerbie happened through his contacts to terrorists.”

A Crown Office spokesman said they “stood ready” to investigate any new leads.

But another family member of one of the victims said that standing ready was not enough.

Pamela Dix, who lost her 35-year-old brother Peter in the Lockerbie bombing, said: “It must be a very chaotic time in Libya at the moment and of course this [the Lockerbie bombing] is not going to be a high priority for the authorities there just now.

“But when it has settled down I do not want the Scottish Government just to stand ready. I want them to be pro-active and not just wait to see what emerges.”

She added: “I think it is too soon to tell what difference this will make with the Lockerbie situation. It might be the case that Gaddafi knew a great deal about what happened. I don’t know yet if it changes anything for the families who have lost loved ones.

“However, what I would say is that if he did know something, he is unlikely to be the only one who did. “We are still advocating full disclosure of the facts.” (...)

Under the conditions of his release, Megrahi, who was released from Scotland to Libya after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, must keep regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council. In light of Gaddafi’s death, a spokeswoman for the local authority said: “Our position with regards to the monitoring of Megrahi remains the same.”

Mahmud Nacua, charge d’affaires at the Libyan embassy in London, suggested the new regime would offer full disclosure to the families.

“When we are stable all the files of the crimes that have been committed by Gaddafi will open,” he said. “Everything will be known to the world what happened in the time of Gaddafi.”

'That's for Lockerbie': Press cheers Kadhafi demise

[This is the headline over a report on the UK press's treatment of the death of Gaddafi published by the Agence France Presse news agency. It reads in part:]

The death of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is a triumph which serves as a warning to other Middle East dictators, but concerns linger over the embattled nation's future, media said Friday.

Newspapers also lauded Britain's role in bringing about the long-serving ruler's downfall, but public opinion appeared to be more muted.

"That's for Lockerbie", populist tabloid The Sun ran as its headline, above a picture of Kadhafi's dead body, in reference to the 1988 bombing of a US passenger jet over a Scottish town which killed 270 people.

The Times' editorial praised the "bravery of the Libyan people" and the "equally honourable" actions of Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for the "swift and timely aid offered in their struggle."

The Rupert Murdoch-owned title also recognised the "bravery, restraint and determination" of Britain's armed forces, who helped avert a massacre "on the scale of Srebrenica" in the once-besieged town of Benghazi.

However, only 42 percent of Guardian readers who took part in an online poll said they were proud of Britain's involvement in Kadhafi's fall from grace.

Uncertainties remain over the circumstances of Kadhafi's demise, but The Times reasoned his death was the preferable outcome as a trial "would probably have revealed little that the world did not already know".

Fellow broadsheet The Daily Telegraph suggested the death had helped redraw the political map of the restive region.

Kadhafi's ousting, along with those of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, had "undeniably transformed the politics of the Arab world, and we will need to adjust accordingly," its editorial said.

"For those despots still clinging to power in the region, notably Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the bloodied corpse of Kadhafi should serve as a chilling incentive to political reform," it added.

The left-leaning Guardian agreed that "there could have been no more prophetic sight for the tyrants who remain" than that of Kadhafi's body being carried away on a truck.

"This may well be the fate that awaits Assad or Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, and they must now know it," the paper's editorial continued.

Looking to the future, the paper urged Libya's new leaders "to remake a future which guarantees both human rights at home and independence from foreign interference.

"This is a tall order in a country with no democratic tradition and lots of oil," it cautioned. "The next chapter in the history of Libya has now begun."

The Times advised Britain to "offer the hand of friendship to the National Transitional Council (NTC)", the republic's provisional government.

It also called for perseverance in the face of the "squalls of conflicting ambitions, exaggerated popular expectations and Islamist manoeuvrings" which now appear inevitable.

[A summary of international media reaction can be found on the website of The Tripoli Post.

One of the reports in today's edition of The Herald contains the following:]

David Cameron described it as a “momentous day” in which all of the dictator’s victims should be remembered, including those killed in the Lockerbie bombing, PC Yvonne Fletcher, gunned down outside the Libyan embassy in London, and all those killed by the IRA using Libyan Semtex explosives.

For its part Libya’s interim government, the National Transitional Council (NTC), claimed Gaddafi’s death had “drawn a curtain” over his crimes.

But it faced immediate pressure from victims to disclose all the evidence it has on his involvement in atrocities, including the Lockerbie bombing.

Despite a claim earlier this year from the head of the NTC he had proof of Gaddafi’s guilt over Lockerbie, that information has never been disclosed to families, said Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the bombing.

An MP also claimed last night the death of the Libyan leader paved the way for the settlement of legal claims by IRA victims.

[A report in The Scotsman contains the following:]

Family members of those who died in the 1988 bombing, described the former dictator’s death as a “missed opportunity” to hold him to account.

Reverend John Mosey, who lost his 19-year-old daughter Helga in the attack, said: “I would much rather that Gaddafi had remained alive so that he could be tried, because I am a great believer in the law. Had he remained alive, we might also have been able to get some answers to the many questions that still remain over Lockerbie.” 

Rev Mosey believes Abdelbaset al-Megrahi – the man convicted over the Lockerbie bombing – is innocent of the crime, and Gaddafi could have shed light on who was responsible.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, is similarly minded.

He said: “I would have loved to have seen Gaddafi appear in front of the International Criminal Court both to answer charges against his gross treatment of his own people and of citizens murdered abroad by his thugs.

“But I would also have loved to have heard about what Gaddafi knew about the Lockerbie atrocity.”