Libya Defector's Money Freed, 'Victims' Fume

Move will encourage others to desert Gadhafi, says administration
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 5, 2011 4:01 AM CDT
Libya Defector Moussa Koussa's Accounts Unfrozen
Moussa Koussa is believed to be in a safe house in Britain, spilling the beans on Gadhafi's inner circle.   (Getty Images)

The Obama administration has lifted financial sanctions against high-profile Libyan defector Moussa Koussa. The official, formerly Moammar Gadhafi's intelligence chief and foreign minister, is suspected of involvement in numerous terrorist acts over the last 30 years, including the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, and the decision to unfreeze his accounts has angered relatives of those who died in the bombing, reports the New York Times.

"It’s all logical in the diplomatic game they need to play,” says the vice president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, whose brother was killed in the bombing. “But at what cost to our system of justice? He’s a mass-murder suspect.” Administration officials say the sanctions were dropped because Koussa is no longer part of the Libyan government, and stress that the move does not affect criminal investigations into his alleged crimes. The FBI still wants to talk to Koussa, as do Scottish prosecutors. Koussa has also been linked to deadly explosives detonated last week by an IRA splinter group that officials believe were obtained from Libya. For more on that, click here. (More Moussa Koussa stories.)

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