Exclusive: UK and US allowed to question ex-Muammar Gaddafi spy chief over Lockerbie bombing

Rescue workers and investigators search the area around the cockpit in 1988. Credit: Reuters

British and American authorities will be allowed to question Muammar Gaddafi's former intelligence chief over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing disaster that killed 270 people, Libya's Justice Minister told ITV News.

Salah Margani added that the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims deserved to finally know everything that happened to their loved ones in the worst terrorist atrocity carried out on British territory.

When Mr Margani was asked whether Abdullah Senussi, who was the director of Libya's feared military wing and Gaddafi's brother-in-law, could be questioned by the UK and US, he said:

Who is Abdullah Senussi?

  • He was the director of Libya's military intelligence wing and brother-in-law of deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

  • The 64-year-old played a key part in the military response to the uprising against Gaddafi and was captured a month after the former ruler's death.

  • In June 2011, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him over alleged crimes against humanity.

  • He is also accused of being involved in the bombing of a French airliner in 1998 and the Abu Salim prison massacre in 1996, which left an estimated 1,200 inmates dead.

ITV News Europe Editor James Mates reports:

Libya's Justice Minister said he hoped the Lockerbie investigation would produce "very good results soon" and that it would go "wider and deeper" into what happened in the 1988 tragedy.

Mr Margani added that the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims deserved to fully know what happened to their relatives to give them some "comfort" and "assurances."

The bombing of Pam Am flight 103 over Scotland killed all 243 passengers on board, 16 crew and 11 people on the ground.

270 people were killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Credit: PA Wire

Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted in connection with the terrorist attack.

He was released by the Scottish government in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and returned to Libya.

Megrahi died last year from the disease still protesting his innocence.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi returned to Libya after being released. Credit: Reuters

The news that Senussi is set to be questioned by UK and US authorities was questioned by a minister who lost his 19-year-old daughter in the disaster.

Reverend John Mosey told ITV News the government was "looking in the wrong place" for the perpetrators and that Libya's link to the attack has been "blown out of the water."

He also added that the Libyan regime was "desperate to pin it all on Gaddafi's regime."