:00:30. > :00:35.After 42 years of tyrannical rule, Colonel Gaddafi is dead. World
:00:35. > :00:39.leaders marked the mood. To date is a day to remember of Colonel
:00:39. > :00:49.Gaddafi's victims. But one of his most ruthless henchman is still on
:00:49. > :00:50.
:00:50. > :00:56.the run. We tracked him down to his five star hideaway in the sun.
:00:56. > :01:02.Moussa Koussa helped prop up the Gaddafi regime for four decades but
:01:02. > :01:08.he was also Britain's secret friend. Tonight, how we colluded with him.
:01:09. > :01:13.Whilst he was organising torture, and even inflicting abuse himself.
:01:13. > :01:17.TRANSLATION: While I was being questioned, Moussa Koussa was
:01:17. > :01:23.shocking me in the neck with the electric rod. I am for the first
:01:23. > :01:33.time, the secret torture tapes, incontrovertible proof of Gaddafi's
:01:33. > :01:46.
:01:46. > :01:50.Five-star luxury at a hotel in Qatar. Among the international
:01:50. > :01:55.businessmen and jet-setting playboy it is this man, Moussa Koussa. He
:01:55. > :01:59.was one of Colonel Gaddafi's inner circle, a ruthless spy chief
:01:59. > :02:04.trusted with the security of the country and stamping out dissent.
:02:04. > :02:12.He is now on the run, but what is intriguing is that when he fled
:02:12. > :02:15.Libya at the start of the uprising, he chose to defect to Britain.
:02:15. > :02:20.Couser is still being questioned at a secret location tonight, and is
:02:20. > :02:24.said to be in a fragile state of mind. His resignation shows
:02:24. > :02:30.Gaddafi's regime is fragmented, under pressure, and crumbling from
:02:30. > :02:35.within. Moussa Koussa was at the heart of Gaddafi's regime. It has
:02:35. > :02:39.long been said he was involved with the Lockerbie bombing. He should
:02:39. > :02:45.also know who was responsible for the shooting of policewoman Yvonne
:02:45. > :02:49.Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in 1984. So his defection here in
:02:50. > :02:54.March was an opportunity to get to the truth. Moussa Koussa is
:02:54. > :02:59.responsible for the deaths of 270 innocent civilians, as well as
:02:59. > :03:03.thousands of his own people as part of the Gaddafi regime. He has to be
:03:03. > :03:13.held accountable for my brother's death and the death of thousands of
:03:13. > :03:13.
:03:13. > :03:18.others. Now, with Gaddafi dead, Moussa Koussa is the guardian of
:03:18. > :03:28.many of Libya's secret. So why, with little explanation, did
:03:28. > :03:29.
:03:29. > :03:35.Britain let him go? Now free, Libya is still surrendering its secrets.
:03:35. > :03:39.For four decades, it was closed to the world. In recent years, we saw
:03:39. > :03:48.only a reformed clown, a fading tyrant with pantomime policies
:03:48. > :03:58.sitting on and -- a lake of oil, but this was a nation terrorised by
:03:58. > :04:00.
:04:00. > :04:05.secret police when neighbours informed on each other. Now, those
:04:05. > :04:11.he wants targeted are the ones in charge. In Tripoli four weeks ago,
:04:11. > :04:16.I was invited out with a team whose job it was to capture remnants from
:04:16. > :04:26.the former regime. They were hunting 25 of Gaddafi's armed
:04:26. > :04:34.
:04:34. > :04:38.supporters, hiding out in a These are the very people who were
:04:38. > :04:44.being rounded up and captured by Gaddafi regime loyalist until weeks
:04:44. > :04:53.ago, and now they are the ones doing the hunting. An informant had
:04:53. > :05:03.already told them their quarry would fight to the death. Then,
:05:03. > :05:03.
:05:04. > :05:08.incoming fire. These buildings are dangerous because they are the
:05:08. > :05:14.hiding place for torturers and guards, people who once worked in
:05:14. > :05:18.Libya's notorious political prison just around the corner. It is in
:05:18. > :05:26.the south of Tripoli, and cities where Gaddafi used to dump his
:05:26. > :05:32.political opponents, real and imagined. Nearly everybody you
:05:32. > :05:37.speak to in Libya has some dark story about what happened to a
:05:37. > :05:47.friend or relative behind these walls. This is Abu Salim prison and
:05:47. > :05:54.
:05:54. > :06:04.his symbol of the unbridled When Tripoli fell, the inmates of
:06:04. > :06:04.
:06:04. > :06:14.Abu Salim prison began freeing themselves. They hacked open doors
:06:14. > :06:15.
:06:15. > :06:25.with anything they could find. You can see the desperate faces of
:06:25. > :06:25.
:06:25. > :06:35.people who had been locked away here for up to 30 years. One of
:06:35. > :06:37.
:06:37. > :06:42.them was this man, Sami Al Saadi. Get your bearings. This was it?
:06:42. > :06:48.was brought here for being the deputy leader of the fighting group
:06:48. > :06:58.intent on assassinating Gaddafi. He was hauled in front of a kangaroo
:06:58. > :07:14.
:07:14. > :07:24.This is the uniform you walk? How do You Know they were happy - were
:07:24. > :07:27.
:07:27. > :07:32.they smiling? Whilst on death row, Sami was interrogated and tortured,
:07:32. > :07:39.but remarkably it was the UK which helped to send him here. Into the
:07:39. > :07:44.hands of Moussa Koussa, who then ran Libya's intelligence service.
:07:44. > :07:50.Moussa Koussa once lived in London. In 1980, he was the Libyan
:07:50. > :07:54.ambassador. But he was expelled for backing a plan to murder two of
:07:54. > :08:04.Gaddafi's opponents living in the UK. His official role for more than
:08:04. > :08:07.
:08:08. > :08:16.a decade was Libya's chief of spies. After Tripoli fell, his old offices
:08:16. > :08:20.were abandoned, but some documents survived the torching. They expose
:08:20. > :08:30.Libya's secret relationship with the UK. In a series of letters
:08:30. > :08:31.
:08:31. > :08:34.between Moussa Koussa and MI6. These documents are extraordinary.
:08:34. > :08:40.They show the real detail of the secret relationship between Britain
:08:40. > :08:46.and America, and Gaddafi's police state. What is amazing is the tone
:08:46. > :08:49.of them, the friendliness. They are cosy and smock at some stages, and
:08:49. > :08:54.I guess the people who wrote them thought they would never see the
:08:54. > :08:59.light of day. They show one senior MI6 officer looking forward to
:08:59. > :09:06.having lunch with Moussa Koussa over Christmas, and signing the
:09:06. > :09:15.letter off with "your friend". They also show British spies were
:09:15. > :09:21.engaged in something sinister, something illegal. The letters show
:09:21. > :09:25.that our secret services colluded with Moussa Koussa to kidnap Sami
:09:26. > :09:31.Al Saadi and others. They were Gaddafi his political opponents
:09:31. > :09:41.living abroad, and at the height of the war on terror, Britain
:09:41. > :09:41.
:09:41. > :09:51.considered them terrorists. In fact, back in the 90s, Sami had lived in
:09:51. > :09:54.
:09:54. > :09:58.London and been given political But after he left, MI6 became
:09:58. > :10:03.suspicious about his Islamist connections. They helped arrange
:10:03. > :10:09.for him to be snatched from an airport in the Far East and return
:10:09. > :10:19.to Libya and Moussa Koussa. Sami and his wife were bundled onto a
:10:19. > :10:33.
:10:33. > :10:38.plane with their four young In a very same week, we handed Sami
:10:38. > :10:45.over in 2004, Tony Blair arrived to meet Gaddafi in the desert. He was
:10:45. > :10:50.our new ally in the war against terror. In the background, our
:10:50. > :10:58.friend Moussa Koussa. As Tony Blair enjoyed the hospitality, Moussa
:10:58. > :11:08.Koussa found time to slip away with a -- for a chat with the newly
:11:08. > :11:21.
:11:21. > :11:26.Other documents show just how close the relationship was becoming. In
:11:26. > :11:31.one, a senior MI6 officer said the rendition of a Gaddafi opponent was
:11:31. > :11:38.the least we can do for you, and described the business simply as
:11:38. > :11:44.cargo. But how was that cargo which we had helped deliver treated once
:11:44. > :11:49.it arrived in Abu Salim prison? Libya was giving reassurances that
:11:49. > :11:54.after rendition, none of these prisoners would face any harm. But
:11:54. > :11:58.what were those reassurances really worth? We were dealing with a
:11:58. > :12:02.secretive police state notorious for torturing and murdering its
:12:02. > :12:12.political opponents, and yet we were sending people back here on
:12:12. > :12:15.
:12:15. > :12:20.trust. Earlier this month, I was out with this team again in Tripoli.
:12:20. > :12:28.They thought they had found another part of Libya's former spy network,
:12:28. > :12:32.a local security office. They are not even looking for people to a
:12:32. > :12:42.rest, they are trying to find stashes of secret documents that
:12:42. > :12:52.are still emerging around Tripoli. Inside, mobile prisons used to
:12:52. > :12:55.
:12:55. > :13:04.house captured opponents. Shelves of intelligence used to incriminate
:13:04. > :13:09.them. But, elsewhere, they found something more chilling. Among the
:13:09. > :13:15.team today, a man who was himself an inmate at Abu Salim prison. He
:13:15. > :13:22.was tortured with electric shocks. Some of the equipment they have
:13:22. > :13:26.ceased is sickeningly familiar to him. TRANSLATION: This is an
:13:26. > :13:30.electric rod which they started torturing me with from the first
:13:30. > :13:36.day. They pressed it on my chest and used the electric roared on my
:13:36. > :13:42.chest. I kept saying I don't know anything. Panorama has now
:13:42. > :13:46.discovered evidence which supports his claims. The regime that we were
:13:46. > :13:53.doing secret deals with was filming It's torture. The evidence comes
:13:53. > :13:58.from a burnt-out ruins of Abu Salim prison itself. Amongst the debris,
:13:58. > :14:03.some crucial evidence survived. We have acquired hours of footage
:14:03. > :14:07.which shows the truth about how this regime treated some of its
:14:07. > :14:14.political opponents. It is chilling stuff, much of it far too gruesome
:14:14. > :14:24.to broadcast, but we can show you some. This was filmed in May this
:14:24. > :14:26.
:14:26. > :14:30.year. A prisoner blindfolded and Them than in the suit is from
:14:30. > :14:36.something called the Interrogation Committee -- the man. In the 1980s,
:14:36. > :14:41.Moussa Koussa was said to be its director. This footage was a small
:14:41. > :14:51.fraction of what we found. There are more whippings, electric shocks,
:14:51. > :14:53.
:14:53. > :14:58.beatings. All of which reinforce the claims of others. Like my --
:14:58. > :15:01.like Nouri. He used to work for Moussa Koussa in the Security
:15:01. > :15:07.Service that he was suspected of being a double agent and working
:15:07. > :15:12.for foreign spy networks. TRANSLATION: there were nine or 10
:15:12. > :15:16.beatings, my body died and I couldn't feel anything anymore. But
:15:16. > :15:21.then they grabbed a metal instrument, which is a type of
:15:21. > :15:25.stapler used by traders to staple large cardboard boxes, and they
:15:25. > :15:30.began to, I apologise to the review is about this, they put my
:15:30. > :15:37.testicles inside the stapler and then they pressed -- I apologise to
:15:37. > :15:44.the viewers. Even before the torture started, Nouri had been
:15:44. > :15:52.paraded in front of his old boss, Moussa Koussa, the Jaouad Gharib
:15:52. > :16:00.would invite to Christmas lunch. -- the man that MI6 would invite to
:16:00. > :16:04.Christmas lunch. He was sitting down and he was very relaxed. I was
:16:04. > :16:13.in and really sad state. He was leading the session and everyone
:16:13. > :16:17.was sitting in their own chef. -- share. But he didn't know you were
:16:17. > :16:22.being badly treated? TRANSLATION: He knew I had been
:16:22. > :16:27.tortured and that my honour had been violated. He knew that well.
:16:27. > :16:34.Tonight we can show that Britain's friend, Moussa Koussa, was attached
:16:34. > :16:39.to the bloodiest massacre of Gaddafi's regime. When we searched
:16:39. > :16:47.former intelligence offices bombed out by NATO, we managed to salvage
:16:47. > :16:52.some of the regime's surveillance They show men gathering outside a
:16:52. > :16:57.mosque. Gaddafi didn't just round up political opponents but
:16:57. > :17:01.religious ones, too. This was taken during one of his random clampdowns
:17:01. > :17:11.on Muslims. They picked up those who appear the most devout and
:17:11. > :17:17.
:17:17. > :17:21.jailed them. Some were never seen This man was one of those arrested.
:17:21. > :17:31.Today, picking up his young son from school, few know what he went
:17:31. > :17:35.
:17:35. > :17:45.through as an inmate at Abu Salim At the time, Abdul Atti was a 24-
:17:45. > :17:51.year-old a moderate Muslim. He was taken to Abu Salim with no idea
:17:51. > :17:56.when he would be released. Conditions were even worse in 1996.
:17:56. > :18:00.Malnutrition, no medicine, no electricity, no clean water. One
:18:00. > :18:04.day, a group of young inmates rebelled.
:18:04. > :18:10.TRANSLATION: The prison guard opened the door, they took the keys
:18:10. > :18:15.from him and beat him up and they tried to escape. The young man came
:18:15. > :18:24.out, then they came out and set off. They were aiming to escape but the
:18:24. > :18:28.door was locked. They couldn't get out. People that his machine gun. -
:18:28. > :18:35.- he pulled out his machine gun. Hundreds of prisoners were herded
:18:35. > :18:42.into the courtyards. The guards moved to the drift of walkways,
:18:42. > :18:51.machine guns trained on the inmates below. Shortly after 11 o'clock,
:18:51. > :18:56.they were awarded to fire. -- ordered to fire.
:18:56. > :19:00.TRANSLATION: We heard screams and beatings and from 11 o'clock to
:19:00. > :19:05.1:30pm, we heard continuous beatings. We did not know what
:19:05. > :19:10.happened exactly and how many were killed. We didn't guess that they
:19:10. > :19:16.killed just about everyone. More than 1200 inmates were slaughtered
:19:16. > :19:21.that day. It took nearly three hours. Abdul Atti only survived
:19:21. > :19:25.because he was hidden by a sympathetic guard. Now, Panorama
:19:25. > :19:35.can reveal that one of the regime's inner circle present as the
:19:35. > :19:41.massacre unfolded was Moussa Koussa or, at the time, chief of spies.
:19:41. > :19:50.This man, Muftah, saw him. He spent nearly two decades in jail. Eight
:19:50. > :19:54.years of it in isolation. He still had just a hole in the
:19:54. > :19:58.ceiling for light. On the day of the massacre, Muftah was
:19:58. > :20:01.negotiating face-to-face with Moussa Koussa on behalf of the
:20:01. > :20:05.prisoners. TRANSLATION: Moussa Koussa was
:20:05. > :20:09.careful to make sure he was present from the beginning and he made
:20:09. > :20:17.threats and said to me personally, you don't deserve to live. He often
:20:17. > :20:20.made threats. Moussa Koussa was there and he was among those who
:20:20. > :20:27.promise the prisoners that if they went back to their cells, nothing
:20:27. > :20:31.would happen to them. But they were betrayed. They killed 1200
:20:31. > :20:37.prisoners and Moussa Koussa was amongst those who carried
:20:37. > :20:43.responsibility for this massacre. When Moussa Koussa came to Abu
:20:43. > :20:46.Salim Prison, people say he used these rooms as his offices. Often,
:20:46. > :20:50.he would leave the interrogation to his juniors and he would sit here
:20:50. > :20:53.and wait for the victim to be delivered with confession into his
:20:54. > :21:02.presence. On other occasions, he would be the one delivering the
:21:02. > :21:08.blows. TRANSLATION: First be stripped me
:21:08. > :21:11.and while I was being questioned, Moussa Koussa was shocking me on
:21:11. > :21:17.the neck with the electric rod and while I was talking he taught me,
:21:17. > :21:23.shut up, and he struck me with the electric rod on my tooth and broke
:21:23. > :21:26.it. The man the UK made deals with over rendition and to give
:21:26. > :21:33.assurances there would be no torture had actually tortured
:21:33. > :21:39.people himself. Weeks into the Libyan uprising, Moussa Koussa
:21:39. > :21:49.began to make his move. He arrived at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli to
:21:49. > :21:51.
:21:51. > :21:56.renounce a bogus ceasefire on It was a rare public appearance
:21:56. > :22:00.from such a secretive figure, by now Gaddafi's foreign minister. At
:22:00. > :22:04.the time, his colleagues were shouting for the blood of rebels
:22:04. > :22:11.but those present said Moussa Koussa or looked uncomfortable,
:22:11. > :22:16.shaky even. He was clearly struggling to toe the party line.
:22:16. > :22:23.Now we know why. These were his last days in Libya. Soon after, he
:22:23. > :22:27.slipped away. He crossed the border into Tunisia and then onto a
:22:27. > :22:33.country he trusted, with whom he had done grubby business before:
:22:33. > :22:38.The UK. He arrived by private jet at Farnborough air base and was
:22:38. > :22:41.then whisked off to a safe house. He was protected by special bronze
:22:41. > :22:48.offices and agreed to be interviewed briefly by Lockerbie
:22:48. > :22:53.investigators -- Special Branch officers. As a reward for his
:22:53. > :23:01.defection, his assets in the West were unfrozen. Now he could tap
:23:01. > :23:06.into his significant wealth. Good afternoon. The government came
:23:06. > :23:11.under pressure over questions about white Moussa Koussa haven't been
:23:11. > :23:15.arrested. They promised there had been no secret deal. Let me be
:23:15. > :23:22.clear, Moussa Koussa is not being granted immunity. There is no deal
:23:22. > :23:27.of that kind. There is no immunity from prosecution, there will be no
:23:27. > :23:32.immunity. He hasn't asked for that. BBC News arranged and night-time
:23:32. > :23:36.meeting with Moussa Koussa through British officials. They weren't
:23:36. > :23:44.allowed questions, there would just be a statement.
:23:44. > :23:53.TRANSLATION: I personally have relations and good relations with
:23:54. > :23:58.so many Britons. We worked together against terrorism. Then, Moussa
:23:58. > :24:03.Koussa said he was off, just for a few days, for a meeting about the
:24:03. > :24:10.future of Libya, to be held in the Gulf state of Qatar. The British
:24:10. > :24:13.Government allowed him to leave. He never came back. When we asked the
:24:13. > :24:17.Foreign Office why they allowed Moussa Koussa to go on his
:24:17. > :24:23.apparently endless trip to Qatar, they said, Moussa Koussa is a
:24:23. > :24:26.private individual who is free to travel to and from the UK. It is
:24:26. > :24:31.not our place to provide a running commentary on his movements and
:24:31. > :24:37.current activities. But when we asked for reassurance he was going
:24:37. > :24:41.to come back, maybe sent somebody with him, same response. "it is not
:24:41. > :24:46.our placed to provide a running commentary". What about torture?
:24:46. > :24:50.They said, we never condoned torture. As for the specific
:24:50. > :24:58.allegations, there is something unique to take up with the Libyan
:24:58. > :25:02.authorities. -- those are things you need to take up. It was up to
:25:02. > :25:06.us to find him. We suspected he was still in Qatar, the tiny Arab
:25:06. > :25:09.emirate in the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the UK let him go because
:25:09. > :25:16.he knew secrets which the British Government would prefer never to
:25:16. > :25:20.have surfaced. A man with his wealth would choose only the most
:25:20. > :25:29.exclusive and discreet of places. We found him in a five-star hotel
:25:29. > :25:35.in Doha. And here he is. In the corner of the restaurant. Scouring
:25:35. > :25:42.the room for anyone suspicious. On the right of the screen, it is his
:25:42. > :25:48.bodyguard. He knows Moussa Koussa could be assassinated at any moment.
:25:48. > :25:54.Hello, Mr Koussa. BBC Television. How many people are you responsible
:25:54. > :25:59.for torturing, Mr Koussa? How many people are you responsible for
:25:59. > :26:06.torturing? These are all questions the International Criminal Courts...
:26:06. > :26:13.These are... Excuse me. I want to know his role in the massacre of
:26:13. > :26:18.more than 1,000 people in 1996, that is all I want to know. Mr
:26:18. > :26:25.Koussa. I am interested in your role of the massacre of 1,000
:26:25. > :26:28.people in 1996. Were you involved? Go! Qatar the government security
:26:28. > :26:34.intervened and confiscated our footage but what they didn't
:26:34. > :26:38.realise was that we have secretly filmed with another two cameras.
:26:38. > :26:43.With all the rest of Gaddafi's family and inner circle either dead
:26:43. > :26:47.or on the run, there are bound to be more questions about why such an
:26:47. > :26:51.important figure was allowed to leave the UK.
:26:52. > :26:56.TRANSLATION: Moussa Koussa, to be honest, Western governments should
:26:56. > :27:00.know the truth about him. He is a murderer and the criminal and his
:27:00. > :27:05.only concern was that his corrupt regime, which ruled Libya with iron
:27:05. > :27:08.and fire, should remain in power. This is why it is imperative that
:27:08. > :27:15.the West must hand over this criminal to justice and he must
:27:15. > :27:19.receive his punishment. Back in Libya, on rough desert behind Abu
:27:19. > :27:23.Salim Prison, Abdul Atti is searching for the body of his
:27:23. > :27:29.brother. He was killed in the prison massacre.
:27:29. > :27:35.TRANSLATION: My brother was a really beloved man in every sense
:27:35. > :27:45.of that word. He knew God's book. He was a much better man than I am
:27:45. > :27:49.
:27:49. > :27:54.Sami is here, too. The Gaddafi opponent jailed after a deal
:27:54. > :28:01.between Britain and Moussa Koussa. He had two brothers killed in the
:28:01. > :28:08.same event. Now families are digging for the bodies of more than
:28:08. > :28:12.1,000 missing inmates. The earth is starting to surrender its secrets
:28:12. > :28:16.but the truth about Gaddafi's murderous regime lies with those
:28:16. > :28:19.still living, the people who committed these crimes against
:28:19. > :28:26.humanity and to commit in the end, we have to account for what they
:28:26. > :28:31.did. -- and who, in the end. On Thursday, a Panorama special,