Secret deal over killer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher

[tyovan]

The Libyan killer of a British policewoman will never be brought to justice in Britain after a secret deal approved by Jack Straw.

The Foreign Office bowed to Libyan pressure and agreed that Britain would abandon any attempt to try the murderer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, shot outside the Libyan embassy in London 25 years ago.

Anthony Layden, Britain’s former ambassador to Libya, said this weekend he had signed the agreement with the Libyan government three years ago, when Straw was foreign secretary. At the time Britain was negotiating trade deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with Libya.

The deal followed a visit by Tony Blair, then prime minister, to meet Colonel Gadaffi in March 2004 after Libya announced that it was ending its nuclear weapons programme.

The disclosure will provoke criticism of the government after the row over the early release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber. Yesterday his son-in-law said his health was deteriorating markedly.

The Foreign Office said the deal had been sealed in an exchange of ambassadors’ letters in 2006: “The Fletcher family know all this and have not considered it to be a big issue.”

However, Queenie Fletcher, mother of Yvonne, said yesterday she had not been told about a deal. “They should have informed us. We were never told they’d agreed to this. No, never,” she said. Yvonne’s sister Heather said the family had known that any trial would probably happen in Libya.

Daniel Kawczynski, a Tory MP who met David Miliband, the foreign secretary, last week with a member of the Fletcher family to discuss the police investigation into the murder, said Miliband had told them nothing about the deal.

Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury, said: “None of this was mentioned. I think they deliberately misled us. I find it extraordinary that the Foreign Office have tried to mislead myself and the Fletcher family.”

Under pressure the Libyans have reluctantly co-operated with Scotland Yard detectives investigating the murder.

They have now suspended any assistance pending their own questioning of David Shayler, a former MI5 officer who claimed there was a British-backed plot to kill Gadaffi. Shayler is now a tranvestite living in a squat in Surrey.

Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: “I was certainly not aware of that arrangement and I would absolutely deplore it.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6832361.ece

[Paddy51]

Call me naive and old fashioned but I do not agree that commercial deals should take precedence over justice. I find this shameful for the UK.

[curlyboy]

I find it coincedental that the one person convicted of another Libyan atrocity at Lockerbie is also released on 'medical' grounds.

Talk about making deals with the devil.

curlyboy

[Paddy51]

I find it coincedental that the one person convicted of another Libyan atrocity at Lockerbie is also released on 'medical' grounds.

Talk about making deals with the devil.

curlyboy

I can tell you that there are a lot of people in Scotland who are not at all happy with Mr. Magrache being released like he was. If there was doubt over this conviction then the planned review i.e. appeal should have taken place as part of due process.

[curlyboy]

I can tell you that there are a lot of people in Scotland who are not at all happy with Mr. Magrache being released like he was. If there was doubt over this conviction then the planned review i.e. appeal should have taken place as part of due process.

Agreed and now he is a hero back home it is a bit late to do anything else, I do feel for the people who lost loved one's in the aircraft and the village and how the goverment has ignored them to fill its coffers and cow tow to a new buffet lunch (second home?).

It does make me wonder if the 747 was a british airways flight full of brits the story would be the same?

But the Libyans trying to compensate people for them supplying the IRA seems a bit of shutting the barn door after the horse has died.

curlyboy

[tea drinker]

Hope the gas and oil is worth it :-(

[Paddy51]

I find all the crawling for oil and gas etc. deals is embarrassing and should be below the dignity of a mature old democracy. But hey, I am just an old idealist...

[SHAM]

Wait until he dies from his Cancer in Libya..he will get a state heros funeral no doubt.

[Paddy51]

Wait until he dies from his Cancer in Libya..he will get a state heros funeral no doubt.

I fear that you are right, sadly. :-(

[2495]

The problem is Paddy51, is that Libya holds some as yet undisclosed 'dirty linen' that the UK is loathe to have aired in public - question is, just what is it?

Add to this oil and gas, the UK sadly is for sale like a dock side whore.

[SHAM]

I fear that you are right, sadly. :-(

Then they will build some monument to remember there hero by...it will be a thorn in the side of the families of the victims for a long time.
He's saying you can have your oil and gas contracts and pay me handsomly for it so my sons can take over when i die, and i will be a hero to my people.

[Paddy51]

The problem is Paddy51, is that Libya holds some as yet undisclosed 'dirty linen' that the UK is loathe to have aired in public - question is, just what is it?

Add to this oil and gas, the UK sadly is for sale like a dock side whore.

The story that is going around is the the UK and USA do not want the legal appeal to go ahead as this will show that some witnesses were paid to give evidence against Magrache and that the real culprit in all this was Iran who wanted to get back at the USA for the shooting down of the passenger plane.

There was a person on the radio here who said that while Magrache may not be guilty of exactly what is was convicted for, he is still guilty of many other shady things....

[Paddy51]

Then they will build some monument to remember there hero by...it will be a thorn in the side of the families of the victims for a long time.
He's saying you can have your oil and gas contracts and pay me handsomly for it so my sons can take over when i die, and i will be a hero to my people.

I can well believe this will happen or something similar or equivalent.

[tea drinker]

The problem is Paddy51, is that Libya holds some as yet undisclosed 'dirty linen' that the UK is loathe to have aired in public - question is, just what is it?

Add to this oil and gas, the UK sadly is for sale like a dock side whore.
But do you see the pace things are moving at? It's as if there isn't even an attempt at democratic norms. What's the hurry?

[Paddy51]

But do you see the pace things are moving at? It's as if there isn't even an attempt at democratic norms. What's the hurry?

The hurry might have been the appeal against Magrache's conviction which was due to be heard soon, meaning scheduled to start I think within a few weeks.

[Eztyga]

Call me naive and old fashioned but I do not agree that commercial deals should take precedence over justice. I find this shameful for the UK.

As they say, money talks, and governments will take what they can get, regardless of justice or an individuals rights.

[futurepilot2004]

Legal question: would the murderer of Pc Fletcher not be immune from prosecution due to diplomatic immunity?

[CMNot]

Theoretically, only if he/she was a diplomat, even then they could be brought to trial if the Libyan's allowed it.

[tyovan]

Personally, I'm very disgusted with how the British and Scottish governments have been acting in regards to Libya.

There are two BP petrol stations within ten minutes of my house. I know it's certainly nothing in the large scheme of things, but I will not be purchasing my petrol from BP again.

[Paddy51]

Legal question: would the murderer of Pc Fletcher not be immune from prosecution due to diplomatic immunity?

The answer is a sort of yes and no. Diplomats enjoy exterratorial rights by agreement between countries which sort of means yes. Local cops do arrest diplomats and then let ministers deal with it. What would normally happen is that diplomatic rights would be withdrawn from a person accused e.g. of murder. So that is the no. In other words this is somewhat complex issue. I know about this as after my dad left the Air Force he was a career diplomat.

As regards the PC Yvonne Fletcher case, then it is not clear that her murderer was a diplomat, could have been support staff? That is my impression anyway.

[tea drinker]

Personally, I'm very disgusted with how the British and Scottish governments have been acting in regards to Libya.

There are two BP petrol stations within ten minutes of my house. I know it's certainly nothing in the large scheme of things, but I will not be purchasing my petrol from BP again.
I think it's Shell that has been getting the new contracts circa 2007.

actually quick search shows back to 2004:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3567175.stm

[Paddy51]

Personally, I'm very disgusted with how the British and Scottish governments have been acting in regards to Libya.

There are two BP petrol stations within ten minutes of my house. I know it's certainly nothing in the large scheme of things, but I will not be purchasing my petrol from BP again.

Well, a lot of Scots are not overly impressed either!

[tyovan]

Well, a lot of Scots are not overly impressed either!

Who to vote for then???

I'm honestly curious.

Labour has destroyed the country.
SNP released Al Megrahi, and are for Scottish independance.
Lib Dems are inconsequential.
BNP will have you labelled as a racist by the thought police the next time membership rolls are leaked.

And that leaves Conservatives... (or Greens if they even have much of a presence in the UK)..

[Paddy51]

Who to vote for then???

I'm honestly curious.

Labour has destroyed the country.
SNP released Al Megrahi, and are for Scottish independance.
Lib Dems are inconsequential.
BNP will have you labelled as a racist by the thought police the next time membership rolls are leaked.

And that leaves Conservatives... (or Greens if they even have much of a presence in the UK)..

Indeed an important question - at the moment I would not vote for any of them and I know I am not alone in that. Not a good situation for democracy.... :-(

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Who to vote for then???

I'm honestly curious.

Labour has destroyed the country.
SNP released Al Megrahi, and are for Scottish independance.
Lib Dems are inconsequential.
BNP will have you labelled as a racist by the thought police the next time membership rolls are leaked.

And that leaves Conservatives... (or Greens if they even have much of a presence in the UK)..You may have not noticed that the Conservative vote has been slipping in Scotland for the last 40 years and if was not for a devolved parliament with PR they would be something of a minority party. The Greens are in the same boat if it was not for PR they would have vanished completly. The Libs have a strong following in the Scottish Borders and it looks like they will pick up more voters in the future. As a Scot I have no qualms over the release Megrahi I would rather have seen his appeal go through but the decision was made for the greater good of the UK rather than just Scotland. As for Labour destroying the country they alone have not been responsible, the successive Conservative governments that preceded Labour made a fistful of a mess of this country.

[CMNot]

Who to vote for then???

I'm honestly curious.

That's what we all think too p-)

~30% turnout next June. That's my tip for quick money. Labour were swept to power in 1997 on something similar to what you could call the 'Obama Delusion'.

[2495]

If you ever watched the Dispatches about her murder? it wasn't the Libyans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGG7jWhhoZY