Almost half of British people think that former Libyan foreign secretary and intelligence chief Moussa Koussa should not be allowed to seek sanctuary in Britain, nor should he be offered immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while working for the Gaddafi regime in exchange for providing intelligence to help bring down the Libyan leader.
- 49% say Koussa’s alleged involvement in past terrorist offences means he should not be allowed to stay in Britain
- 22% say he should be allowed to stay in Britain in order to encourage other senior figures in Libya to defect and help bring down the Gaddafi regime
- 76% think that Koussa should not be offered immunity from prosecution, and should be brought to justice if real evidence against him exists
- Compared to 7% who think that Koussa should be offered immunity in exchange for helping bring down the Libyan regime
Moussa Koussa, formerly a key player in Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadaffi’s regime, defected from Libya and fled to Britain early last week, saying that he no longer wished to represent the regime. He currently remains in Britain, but Foreign Secretary William Hague has repeatedly stated that no ‘deal’ has been done nor has Koussa been offered immunity from prosecution.
Koussa is thought to have had a senior intelligence role in Libya at the time of the Lockerbie bombings, which killed 280 people in 1988. Since arriving in Britain he has met with the Scottish Justice Secretary in a bid to see if he can provide any solutions to the still-open case file of the tragedy. However, despite the hope of answers surrounding such a meeting, Gaddafi’s son has called Koussa a ‘sick, old man’, and said that he has ‘no secrets’ to reveal.
