The European Union rewarded the most senior official to defect the Muammar Qaddafi regime -- the man Libyan opposition blames for orchestrating the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland -- by unfreezing his assets and lifting a travel ban.
The measure lifting sanctions against former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, which was agreed to Tuesday but made public Thursday, was at least in part an attempt to lure other senior figures into deserting Qaddafi defectors, an EU official said.
Lifting the sanctions required the assent of all European Union countries. The move comes after the U.S. Treasury Department removed its sanctions earlier this month.
But the official said the action was taken at the request of Britain, to which Koussa flew March 30 to defect. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations.
The British Foreign Office issued a statement Thursday explaining its reasoning.
"Sanctions are introduced to invoke behavioral change and as Moussa Koussa has chosen to leave regime he is no longer sanctioned in this way," the statement said.
Koussa was a trusted Qaddafi adviser, and he has been blamed for some of Libya's brutality and credited for some of its diplomatic successes. He was Libya's chief of intelligence for more than a decade and is privy to all the inner workings of the regime. He has been debriefed thoroughly by British officials.
The Libyan opposition blames him for the assassinations of dissidents in western capitals and for orchestrating the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the bombing of another jet over Niger a year later. The links have never been confirmed.
In later years, Koussa played an important role in persuading Western nations to lift sanctions on Libya and remove its name from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. He led settlements of Lockerbie, offered all information about Libya's nuclear program and gave London and Washington information about Islamic militants after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
