It was in the late summer of 2009. I had gone to Libya after the release of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, to secure the world’s first newspaper interview with him.
One night after midnight myself and David Bebber, The Times photographer, were summoned by Moussa Koussa to the Foreign Ministry in Tripoli.
We went with some apprehension. This man had the most fearsome reputation. He had been expelled from Britain in 1980 for plotting the deaths of exiled Gaddafi opponents. He was allegedly implicated in Lockerbie and other bombing atrocities. His reputation had been improved only slightly by his obvious involvement in Libya’s rapprochement with Britain.
Mr Koussa’s office was a huge long room. It was plush and chilled. Tripoli was baking. As we entered he was sitting at the far end. He did not get up. He did not smile. He just watched as we entered the room. He did not shake hands. He did not offer us tea, breaking with the traditional Arab custom of courtesy. It was a chilling encounter.
Hardly had we sat down when he was telling us how much he hated the media. He could not have been more hostile. When I raised with him his notorious past, he just said: ”Don’t believe everything you hear. Don’t believe everything you hear.”
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During the interview he flatly denied that al-Megrahi or Libya was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing. “Libya is a victim ... it’s a preconception of the Western media that Libya was the one.”
Of his own alleged role, he observed: “I was not called to stand before a court.”
Mr Koussa spoke throughout the 45-minute interview through an interpeter, although we sensed that he could speak English, but did not want to do anything that appeared to be friendly towards us.
But I have always believed that of all the members of the Gaddafi inner circle he was the one most likely to defect. He was the only senior figure who wasn’t a relative of the Gaddafi family in one way or another.
He appeared to be Western in his tastes. He wore immaculate Western-style suits with a tie. He had well-coiffured, immaculate silver hair. He had a few young aides in his office who appeared to be Western educated.
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He was closely involved in negotiating compensation payments for Lockerbie victims. He was at home in the Traveller’s Club in Pall Mall, where he allegedly negotiated the dismantling of Libya’s weapons of mass destruction.
I saw him again when he gave a press conference just after the uprising began. This was a man I had always found inscrutable. He never gave anything away, there were no facial signals. On this occasion he looked unusually ill at ease for a man who was normally so composed.
He read a prepared statement, trotting out the government line that the uprising was being fuelled by al-Qaeda, and claimed that Libyan diplomats had defected because rebels had threatened their families back home.
When questioned hard by sceptical journalists, he walked out. That was out of character. Now we know why he was so uncomfortable.