Abdullah al-Senussi and Lockerbie

[The following is an excerpt from a report in today's edition of The Herald:]

Muammar Gaddafi’s brother-in-law and spymaster general was dramatically captured yesterday, just a day after the dictator’s son Saif was caught, in what were dubbed the “last acts” of a now-extinct regime.

Having both men in custody will boost hopes that they will reveal what they know about the Lockerbie bombing and other atrocities. 

The last stand of intelligence chief Abdullah al Senussi came as Libyan rebels insisted they would try Saif rather than transfer him to International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. Unlike the ICC, it is expected a Libyan court would have the power to impose the death penalty, and officials in the interim government yesterday indicated that was the punishment they would seek.

It is likely the rebels will also push for the death penalty for al Senussi, long known as Gaddafi’s brutal right-hand man and a hate figure for many in the country. (...)

A decade ago he was convicted in his absence in France of the 1989 bombing of a UTA passenger plane over Niger which killed 170 people. As a former head of the country’s intelligence services he is likely to face pressure to reveal what he knows about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in which 270 people in died the worst terrorist atrocity over UK soil.

[A similar report in The Scotsman can be read here.  The following appears in a post of 17 May 2011 on this blog:]

In the 1980s, he headed Libya's external security organisation, in which capacity he was said to have recruited Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in which 270 people were killed. Like Megrahi, Senussi is a member of the powerful Megarha tribe. He is also a cousin of Abdel-Salam Jalloud, one of Gaddafi's oldest comrades.