You're reading: Scottish police may question Libya’s Koussa soon

LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Scottish prosecutors investigating the Lockerbie bombing said on Monday police may interview former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa in "the next few days."

U.S and Scottish authorities want to question Koussa, who defected to Britain last week, over the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, as well as other crimes they suspect were committed by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

British officials hope Koussa, a former spy chief, will provide vital military and diplomatic intelligence about how the Gaddafi administration functions and that his defection will encourage other Gaddafi allies to abandon him.

"Steps are being taken with a view to arranging a meeting with Mr. Moussa Koussa at the earliest opportunity in the next few days," a spokesman for Scotland’s Crown Office said.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said earlier on Monday that defectors from Gaddafi’s government would not be offered immunity from prosecution.

The Scottish government has been criticised for releasing the only person convicted for the bombing.

Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was allowed to return home in 2009 because he was judged to be terminally ill with cancer.

Koussa is believed to have played a key role in the release of Megrahi, who is still alive.

In 2003, Libya said it accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials in connection with the bombing, which killed 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.