They spoke after Koussa, also the former spy chief for Muammar Qaddafi, defected to Britain on Wednesday, parting ways with the Libyan leader over what a Koussa friend called Qaddafi’s attacks on civilians in a conflict with rebels.
Families of those killed when Pam Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town warned that Prime Minister David Cameron that no deals should be done to protect Koussa.
While British officials are hoping that he will provide vital military and diplomatic intelligence, campaigners want him to shed light on the bombing which killed 259 people, mostly Americans, on the plane and 11 on the ground.
“He was the head of the Libyan intelligence services so if Libya is responsible for the bombing of Pam Am 103 then Mr.Koussa is too,” Pamela Dix, whose brother was one of those killed, told Reuters.
“The police ... should be interviewing him as a matter of urgency. He should not be a free man in this country.”
Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan agent, was sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for his part in blowing up the airliner but was released by the Scottish government in 2009 when he was judged by doctors to be terminally ill.
Koussa played a key role in the release of Megrahi.
British police said they were waiting for a decision from the Crown Office, the body responsible for prosecutions in Scotland, as to whether Koussa should be questioned.
“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 Crown Office spokesman said.
IMMUNITY
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Koussa would not be given immunity from prosecution. However, there are concerns that deals could be struck with Koussa in return for providing useful information about Qaddafi.
“What advantage he gives to us and to the (Libyan) rebels must be balanced by what he has done in the past,” Conservative lawmaker Patrick Mercer told BBC TV. “The fact remains that if this man has carried out crimes or been involved in criminal activity, then he must be brought to justice.”
Dix said any deal would be unacceptable. “It would be reprehensible in the extreme if this extraordinary opportunity were let go in order to find out a bit more about the Libyan regime,” she said. Jim Swire, whose daughter was killed in the bombing but doubts Megrahi himself was behind the attack, told Sky News he was “jubilant” about Koussa’s arrival.
“I’m not saying his evidence will reveal Qaddafi’s complicity necessarily, but it may reveal a great deal of knowledge about how our loved ones did come to be killed, and those are questions to which we have the right to answers.”
Cameron has persistently condemned Megrahi’s release and criticized Britain’s then-Labour government’s policy on Libya of restoring diplomatic ties and business links in return for Qaddafi ending his attempts to obtain banned weapons.
“(Former Prime Minister) Tony Blair ... chose British business interests effectively over uncovering the truth around Lockerbie,” Dix said. “So David Cameron is going to have to deliver. I will be expecting a great deal and I will not be expecting deals to be done.”
