Secrets of terror, brutality and rape taken to the grave

Although his regime belatedly accepted responsibility over the Lockerbie bombing, alongside other acts of terrorism, the colonel has never come clean over his own role in ordering the atrocity.

Questions also remain over the fatal shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London, and the country’s arming of overseas terrorist groups, as well as the building up of its own stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

Had he been captured alive, it is possible that the former Libyan leader would have been held to account over his actions.

The fear now is that many of the secrets Gaddafi held will accompany his bloodied body to the grave.

The International Criminal Court has been readying an indictment sheet against the former Libyan leader that accused him of presiding over the massacre of protesters and sanctioning the use of rape as a weapon in conflict.

Vile though the charges are, many in the international community were looking more towards probing the dictator over crimes that pre-date the Libyan uprising.

In 2003, Gaddafi’s regime accepted “responsibility for the actions of its officials” in relation to the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, an atrocity that killed 259 people on the plane and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie. But the statement fell short of acknowledging any personal role Gaddafi had in ordering the terrorist attack.

Family members of those who died in the 1988 bombing, described the former dictator’s death as a “missed opportunity” to hold him to account.

Reverend John Mosey, who lost his 19-year-old daughter Helga in the attack, said: “I would much rather that Gaddafi had remained alive so that he could be tried, because I am a great believer in the law. Had he remained alive, we might also have been able to get some answers to the many questions that still remain over Lockerbie.”

Rev Mosey believes Abdelbaset al-Megrahi – the man convicted over the Lockerbie bombing – is innocent of the crime, and Gaddafi could have shed light on who was responsible.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, is similarly minded.

He said: “I would have loved to have seen Gaddafi appear in front of the International Criminal Court both to answer charges against his gross treatment of his own people and of citizens murdered abroad by his thugs.

“But I would also have loved to have heard about what Gaddafi knew about the Lockerbie atrocity.”

In America, family members of Lockerbie victims appeared content that in death, Gaddafi had finally been “brought to justice”. Glen Johnson, whose 21-year-old daughter Beth Ann was on Pan Am flight 103, said: “It is a long time coming. Finally the man who ordered the death of my daughter and so many more people on that plane and on the ground in Scotland has been brought to justice.”

Speaking from his home in Pennsylvania, Mr Johnson said he “was torn” over whether he would have preferred to see Gaddafi tried in court, adding: “It is probably best that they killed him.”

The destruction of Pan Am flight 103 was by no means the only act of overseas terrorism blamed on Gaddafi’s regime during his 42-year rule.

In 1986, a bomb exploded in a discotheque in Berlin frequented by US servicemen, resulting in the death of three people.

Libya finally agreed to compensate victims’ families in 2008, but the regime never accepted full responsibility.

The German nightclub bombing led to US strikes on Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli.

During one air raid, the dictator’s 14-month-old daughter was said to have been killed. But questions have since been raised over whether the “death” of the young girl, named Hana, had been concocted to arouse sympathy for the regime.

It has been suggested that the girl survived and grew up to become a doctor in Tripoli. The mystery of Hana is a secret Gaddafi apparently kept up until his death.

It is also thought likely that he died knowing the identity of the person responsible for the murder of WPC Fletcher in 1984.

The 25-year-old police officer was marshalling a protest outside the Libyan embassy in London when she was shot by someone in the building.

In 1999, Gaddafi’s government accepted responsibility. But to date no-one has stood trial over WPC Fletcher’s death.

Scotland Yard said yesterday the murder investigation remained open and officers were “committed to identifying those people responsible”.

To others representing Gaddafi’s overseas victims, yesterday’s news will have little bearing on the case against him.

Lawyer Jason McCue works on the behalf of victims of the IRA, which received shipments of weapons, ammunition and plastic explosives from the Libyan regime in the 1970s, it is claimed.

He said that the “evidence was already clear” and that there were “no questions left unasked” in regards to the link between Libya and Irish terrorism.

It is not clear if Gaddafi would have been forthcoming with information even if captured alive and put on trial.

Sir Richard Dalton, former ambassador to Libya, doesn’t believe so. He told The Scotsman: “To use the police jargon, he would not be the kind of person to have ‘helped with enquiries’.

“He would have been looking to set forth his role in history and his own legacy.

“That would have led to a lot of rhetoric and not a lot in the way of admissions.”