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UK diplomats deny secret deal with Libya over cop killer case
Source: Agencies |
September 14, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
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BRITAIN'S complicated relations with Libya returned to center stage yesterday as Foreign Office diplomats took the unusual step of denying a newspaper report about a secret deal with the country.
The officials said there was no truth to a front-page Sunday Times article alleging that British diplomats had made a secret deal with Libya three years ago that would prevent the killer of a British policewoman from going on trial in Britain.
The newspaper said British officials seeking to make trade and oil deals with Libya secretly agreed that the person responsible for killing policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London 25 years ago would not be brought to trial in Britain. The report said even her family had been kept in the dark.
The issue is sensitive because the British government's dealings with Libya have been under intense scrutiny since last month's release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who is terminally ill with cancer.
"It is entirely misleading and simply wrong to suggest that there was a 'secret deal' over the treatment of any suspect in relation to the murder of Yvonne Fletcher," said a Foreign Office spokesman, who asked not to be identified.
He said the exchange of letters cited by the newspaper did not outline a secret deal but simply established that under Libyan law in effect at the time there was no way for a Libyan to be extradited to face trial abroad.
That meant any suspect in the Fletcher murder could only be tried inside Libya, the spokesman said, adding that the British government is pressing the Libyan government to allow Scotland Yard investigators to pursue leads in the case in Libya.
Libya suspended its cooperation with the British police after reports surfaced of a British-led plot to kill its leader Moammar Gaddafi, but UK officials hope this can be reversed since there has been a significant thaw in ties between the two countries since Gaddafi renounced terrorism and abandoned his program to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Fletcher was shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy in 1984. No one has been convicted for her killing, though the Libyan government has accepted that its agents were responsible.
The officials said there was no truth to a front-page Sunday Times article alleging that British diplomats had made a secret deal with Libya three years ago that would prevent the killer of a British policewoman from going on trial in Britain.
The newspaper said British officials seeking to make trade and oil deals with Libya secretly agreed that the person responsible for killing policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London 25 years ago would not be brought to trial in Britain. The report said even her family had been kept in the dark.
The issue is sensitive because the British government's dealings with Libya have been under intense scrutiny since last month's release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who is terminally ill with cancer.
"It is entirely misleading and simply wrong to suggest that there was a 'secret deal' over the treatment of any suspect in relation to the murder of Yvonne Fletcher," said a Foreign Office spokesman, who asked not to be identified.
He said the exchange of letters cited by the newspaper did not outline a secret deal but simply established that under Libyan law in effect at the time there was no way for a Libyan to be extradited to face trial abroad.
That meant any suspect in the Fletcher murder could only be tried inside Libya, the spokesman said, adding that the British government is pressing the Libyan government to allow Scotland Yard investigators to pursue leads in the case in Libya.
Libya suspended its cooperation with the British police after reports surfaced of a British-led plot to kill its leader Moammar Gaddafi, but UK officials hope this can be reversed since there has been a significant thaw in ties between the two countries since Gaddafi renounced terrorism and abandoned his program to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Fletcher was shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy in 1984. No one has been convicted for her killing, though the Libyan government has accepted that its agents were responsible.
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