Mohamad Moussa Koussa is No. 24 on the EU black list, which is annexed to a Council decision dated 23 March which among other things requires member states to take the necessary measures to prevent the entry into, or transit through, their territories of Gaddafi himself and his closest aides.
Reportedly, Moussa Koussa went to Tunisia with his family on Monday (28 March) and asked for political asylum in the UK Embassy. From there, he flew into Farnborough, a business airport in southeast England.
According to press reports, Moussa Koussa, a former intelligence chief, is the mastermind of the Lockerbie terrorist attack, one of the deadliest in world history.
The Lockerbie disaster took place on 21 December 1988, when PanAm flight 103 - a Boeing 747-121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas - flying from London to New York was destroyed by a bomb and crashed in the town of Lockerbie. All 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground were killed.
In 2001, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan working for his country's secret services, was convicted for the bombing by a special court in Camp Zeist, Netherlands, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Reportedly, Megrahi is a relative of Moussa Koussa.
In August 2009, Megrahi was freed from jail in Scotland on humanitarian grounds, an issue which is still causing a high degree of controversy. Moussa Koussa was involved in the talks that led to Megrahi's liberation.
A UK government source quoted by Reuters described Moussa Koussa's resignation as "a significant blow" to Gaddafi.
"Koussa is one of the most senior figures in Gaddafi's government and his role was to represent the regime internationally - something that he is no longer willing to do," a British Foreign Office spokesman said in a statement.
"He travelled here under his own free will. He has told us he is resigning his post," the spokesman said.
Noman Benotman, a friend of the former Libyan minister and analyst at Britain's Quilliam think-tank, said Koussa was "seeking refuge" in Britain. "He has defected from the regime," he said. "He wasn't happy at all. He doesn't support the government attacks on civilians."
A Libyan spokesman said he had not defected and was travelling on a diplomatic mission.
