PROSECUTED or NOT? (1)_Libya_Koussa's defection poses a dilemma for Cameron

Koussa's defection poses a dilemma for Cameron


Telegraph View: Should Moussa Koussa be welcomed as an enlightened turncoat, or investigated and, if necessary, prosecuted?

7:20PM BST 31 Mar 2011
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The arrival in Britain of Moussa Koussa, Libya's erstwhile foreign minister, has been likened by some to the defection of Rudolf Hess from Nazi Germany in 1941. And while we should avoid getting the conflict in North Africa out of proportion, there are some similarities. Mr Koussa was the right-hand man of the Libyan dictator, Col Muammar Gaddafi, and party to many of the regime's appalling excesses, from arming the IRA and other terrorist organisations, to blowing up a PanAm airliner over Lockerbie in 1988. He does, therefore, present the Government with a similar dilemma to that provided by Hess: should he be greeted as an enlightened turncoat whose example will encourage other Gaddafi lieutenants to follow suit; or should he be investigated and, if necessary, prosecuted for his alleged role in the regime's crimes?

By making an early statement that Mr Koussa will not be offered immunity from prosecution, David Cameron has properly kept open the option of a possible trial should the evidence warrant one, either in this country or before the International Criminal Court. Already, Dumfries and Galloway police have said they wish to interview Mr Koussa about the Lockerbie atrocity (though it is somewhat ironic that this has been welcomed by Alex Salmond, whose SNP administration released Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of actually planting the bomb). As a past head of Libyan state security, Mr Koussa is well placed to help answer many outstanding questions about who planned and ordered the bombing in which 270 people died. By rights, he should be tried in Libya – but our human rights laws will now prevent his deportation.

However, there are aspects of this defection about which we are not yet – and may never be – aware. Sir George Young, the Leader of the Commons, told MPs yesterday that Britain had been in "regular contact" with Mr Koussa before he fled Libya. For how long and to what end? Should it transpire that the former minister – who brokered the deal under which Col Gaddafi gave up his weapons of mass destruction – has been an agent of the West all along, would it not be considered churlish to put him on trial or indict him for crimes against humanity?

Mr Cameron said yesterday he hoped that Mr Koussa's desertion would encourage others of Gaddafi's entourage to abandon him – but that is hardly likely if they think they will end up in prison. So far, the Prime Minister has scrupulously set out his case for intervention in Libya on grounds of high principle. But where Mr Koussa is concerned, his desire to do what is right is about to collide with the requirements of a foreign policy in which it might be more important to do what is necessary.