Abdullah al-Senussi: spy with secrets of Lockerbie bombing sent back to Libya

Officials in Mauritania return Senussi to Libya six months after he slipped into their country on false passport

guardian.co.uk, Luke Harding, Ian Black, Severin Carrell and Chris Stephen, Wednesday 5 September 2012

Abdullah al-Senussi, Libya's former director of military intelligence, is one
of the world’s most wanted men. Photograph: Paul Hackett /Reuters

MuammarGaddafi's former spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi, the man thought to have orchestrated the Lockerbie bombing, was extradited to Libya from Mauritania on Wednesday amid an international legal tussle over where he should face trial.

Officials in Mauritania returned Senussi to Libya six months after he slipped into their country on a false passport. Senussi arrived back in Tripoli at lunchtime. He emerged from an ambulance helicopter, seemingly relaxed and with a nervous smile, before Libyan security officials whisked him away to prison.

Senussi, Gaddafi's former director of military intelligence, is one of the world's most wanted men. Libya, France and the international criminal court (ICC) are all seeking his extradition.

France wants to question him in connection with the bombing of a UTA passenger plane in 1989. The ICC has indicted him for crimes against humanity during Libya's civil war last year.

Britain also has a strong interest in Senussi and is likely to try to interview him in connection with the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Senussi headed Libya's external security organisation at the time and is said to have recruited Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of bombing the Pan Am 103 flight, which killed 270 people. Megrahi died at his home in Libya in May. The US also wants to arrest Senussi in connection with Lockerbie.

Speaking from her home in New Jersey, Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, 20, was one of 35 Syracuse University students killed in the bombing, said it would be "excellent" if Scottish investigators succeeded in meeting him.

"I would thoroughly urge them to do so," she said. "It's vital to interview Senussi. I would hope they will be interviewing others. I think it's extremely important that we know. There may be other people [in Libya] who can be indicted and if that is the case, we need to do that."

As Gaddafi's trusted confidante and brother-in-law, Senussi is now in a unique position to shed light on the secrets of the Gaddafi era. In an interview with the Guardian in May, Libya's prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keib called Senussi the ousted regime's "black box".

He also said Senussi knew the identity of the killer of PC Yvonne Fletcher, shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984. "I guarantee he was almost directly or indirectly involved in most if not all of the crimes [of the former regime]," Keib said. He added: "That doesn't mean others weren't involved. But he definitely knows who they were."

On Wednesday John Murray, a former police constable who was on duty with Fletcher outside the embassy, and who remembers her dying in his arms, said the UK should seek permission to interview Senussi. The case has remained open since her murder. "Senussi was one of the key players. He's got all the answers. If they [the government] were taking the Yvonne investigation seriously they would be on the plane to Libya already," he said. Foreign Office officials said the UK had already formally asked the Libyan government to facilitate any investigation into Lockerbie and the Fletcher killing. But it remains unclear what access to Senussi – if any – British detectives will be given.

His extradition comes at a moment of political uncertainty for Libya, as it struggles to put in place a new transitional government following July's historic post-Gaddafi elections, the first democratic vote in the country for more than 40 years. A new prime minister may emerge next week, amid horsetrading between centrists and Islamists in the new parliament. Libyan officials hailed Senussi's arrest on Wednesday as a crucial step towards the creation of a state based on institutions and justice.

But the case will deepen Libya's legal standoff with the international community. The ICC said Senussi should be handed over for trial in the Hague. It indicted him last year, along with Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam, for crimes committed against civilians.

Saif was arrested by Libyan forces in November. Tripoli now says Saif will appear in court this month, likely before the ICC judges issue a decision on whether they consider Libya has a legal system robust enough to guarantee a fair trial. The issue of the death penalty – certain to be demanded by Libyan prosecutors – will prove highly contentious.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who prosecuted the late Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague, said Libya could be heading for another political showdown with the ICC if it refuses to hand Senussi over. The ICC has already crossed swords with Libya after one of its defence lawyers, Melinda Taylor, was detained earlier this year while visiting Saif in the western mountain town of Zintan. "Libya will have to make an application to claim admissibility. It depends whether the ICC desires to have this case," Nice said.

Senussi is now in custody in Tripoli's Hadbat al-Khadra prison, guarded by the ministry of justice and police. The prison houses other prominent figures from the former regime, including Gaddafi's prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi and external intelligence chief Abuzeid Dorda. Libya's deputy prosecutor general, Taha Baara, said Senussi would undergo routine medical tests before undergoing interrogation.

Libya's provisional government wants to try him in connection with numerous human rights abuses, including the massacre of 1,200 prisoners at the Abu Salim jail in 1996, which he is said to have personally supervised. During the 2011 Libyan civil war, he was blamed for orchestrating killings in the city of Benghazi and recruiting foreign mercenaries. Senussi was married to Gaddafi's sister-in-law. Leaked US diplomatic cables describe him as a trusted "senior regime figure" "who had played a role as minder of the more troublesome Gaddafi offspring".

They add: "Sanussi … is usually in physical proximity to the tent in which Gaddafi holds meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries and, according to members of Gaddafi's protocol office, personally oversees Gaddafi's close protection detail."Senussi reportedly fled Tripoli as it fell to the rebels in August 2011, going first to Sirte and then heading southwards, home to his Megarha tribe before going to ground in Ghat. In October, when Gaddafi was killed, he crossed into Niger with a Tuareg escort. In November, according to reports, he was first in Mali then Mauritania and finally Morocco. Senussi arrived in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott from Casablanca on a scheduled Royal Air Maroc flight on 16 March. Mauritania said he was identified in a routine passport check but Arab sources claim French intelligence was involved in the operation.

The Moroccan magazine Telquel reported that he had been under surveillance for some time by Moroccan security services.