Moussa Koussa, the Libyan defector, could be allowed to leave the country, William Hague has said.
Moussa Koussa was a senior intelligence officer at the time of the Lockerbie bombing Photo: REUTERS
By Auslan Cramb, James Kirkup and Duncan Gardham
9:00PM BST 08 Apr 2011
The foreign secretary said Mr Koussa, who faces inquiries from the International Criminal Court and families of the victims of Libyan terrorists, would not be forced to return to Libya, adding: "There are quite a range of places that he could go to live."
Mr Hague's comments, in an interview with Sky News, came as relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims accepted he may never face trial in Britain.
Susan Cohen, who lost her only daughter on Pan Am Flight 103 said the former intelligence chief "should probably be hanged for what he has done" but she had no expectation of him ending up in a Scottish court.
She added that American relatives were more interested in the British authorities using him to "get to" Col Muammar Gaddafi than in seeing Mr Koussa on trial.
Mrs Cohen was speaking the day after Scottish police and prosecutors interviewed Mr Koussa for the first time.
An officer from Dumfries and Galloway Police interviewed the Libyan defector, who was a senior intelligence officer at the time of the bombing, at a secret location on Thursday.
He is understood to have agreed to the interview and was questioned by DS Michael Dalgliesh in the hope that he could lead officers to those who ordered the attack, the worst terrorist atrocity on British soil.
Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, welcomed the meeting and said he had no doubt officers would question him again "if required".
Families of victims of the IRA bombings also want to talk to him as they seek compensation for attacks involving Libyan-supplied Semtex.
Col Gaddafi agreed to pay compensation to the Lockerbie families in 2003, but continues to deny responsibility for ordering the attack.
The former foreign minister was pivotal in the handing over of Abdelbaset al Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, and his co-accused Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah, who was acquitted at the trial in 2001. He also oversaw negotiations on compensation payments.
Megrahi, 59, a former Libyan intelligence agent, remains the only man convicted of the atrocity but is at home in Tripoli after Scottish ministers freed him on compassionate grounds in 2009. Mr Fhimah could face a retrial under new double-jeopardy laws if Mr Koussa gives further evidence against him.
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