PM Hopeful Of WPC Murder Probe Help

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher is a reminder of the "horrors" of the Gaddafi regime and expressed hope that the rebel authorities would co-operate in the investigation into her murder.












Policemen attending to Wpc Yvonne Fletcher who was shot during demonstrations outside Libyan Embassy.

Only one of the three main suspects in the 1984 killing is believed still to be alive but Mr Cameron said he was sure that the National Transitional Council (NTC) would assist British police in their investigation.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also said the Government will do "everything we can" to get answers for WPC Fletcher's family.

Rebel officials in Tripoli on Tuesday night said one of the suspects for WPC Fletcher's murder, Abdulqadir al-Baghdadi, had been shot in the head. He was an official at the Libyan embassy in London at the time of the murder.

Reports in the Daily Telegraph claimed that junior official Abdulmagid Salah Ameri, who was suspected of firing the fatal shots, is also thought to have died. That left Matouk Mohammed Matouk as the last named suspect believed to be still alive, it added.

Negotiations have begun so that officers from the Metropolitan Police investigating the murder of WPC Fletcher, who was gunned down while on duty at a protest against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime outside the Libyan embassy in London, could travel to Libya once the security situation improves.

Mr Cameron said: "There is an ongoing police investigation and I am sure the new authorities in Libya will co-operate in that investigation."

He added: "The murder of Yvonne Fletcher was a reminder of the horrors that happened under the Gaddafi regime, and we should be celebrating today that that regime is coming to an end, and that Britain has played a proud part in that."

Mr Clegg said the Government would be "looking to the new Libyan administration to help" when he was asked if pressure would be put on the NTC to extradite Matouk for a trial in the UK.

Mr Cameron will on Thursday travel to Paris for an international conference on Libya aimed at providing support to the NTC.

New Libya May Refuse To Extradite Yvonne Fletcher Murder Suspect

Diplomat suspected of killing police officer in 1984 at London embassy could escape extradition, but might be tried in Libya.












Police officers try to revive PC Yvonne Fletcher after she was shot outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984 during an anti-Gaddafi protest. Libyan officials say the suspect might not be extradited.

The justice minister of the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Friday a post-Gaddafi government would "not give any Libyan citizen to the west", in an apparent blow to British hopes of putting on trial the suspected killer of Yvonne Fletcher, the police officer shot dead 27 years ago outside the Libyan embassy.

Mohammed al-Alagi also ruled out the return to the UK of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing but released in 2009 on compassionate grounds.

"Al-Megrahi has already been judged once and he will not be judged again," he told journalists in Tripoli. "We do not hand over Libyan citizens, [Muammar] Gaddafi does."

Alagi added: "We will not give any Libyan citizen to the west," a comment that appeared to rule out the extradition of the man suspected of shooting Fletcher in 1984.

Earlier on Sunday, the foreign secretary, William Hague, played down suggestions that the NTC would not work with British officials in their the hunt for her killer. He said: "When chairman [Mustafa Abdel] Jalil … was with us in London in May he committed himself and the council to co-operating fully with the British government on this issue."

Hague was responding to a report in the Sunday Times that quoted two NTC officials saying nobody would be sent to the UK to face trial for Fletcher's killing.

"Libya has never extradited or handed over its citizens to a foreign country. We shall continue with this principle," said Hassan al-Sagheer, a member of the NTC.

Another NTC member, Fawzi al-Ali, was quoted as saying: "According to our laws, no one can be handed over unless there are special agreements to do so."

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that, at present, Libyan law prohibits the extradition of its own citizens. It does, however, allow for its nationals to be tried in Libya for crimes committed overseas.

Guma el-Gamaty, the NTC's UK co-ordinator, took part in the anti-Gaddafi protest that Fletcher was policing when she was shot.

He distanced himself from the views expressed by Sagheer and others, insisting on Sunday that it was too early to draw any conclusions. "Nobody can rule out anything at the moment; the possibility [of a British trial] is there," he said. "But first of all investigations need to be concluded. Somebody has to be identified as the killer … Obviously everyone wants justice; it's just a matter of when and how and whether the actual killer has been identified."

Gamaty added that, as with the Fletcher case, the issue of an eventual return to Scottish jail for Megrahi was "a decision for a future Libyan government". The whereabouts of Megrahi, who was given a hero's welcome when he returned to Libya two years ago, are unknown.

No one has ever been charged for killing Fletcher, who was 25 when officials inside the Libyan embassy opened fire on the anti-Gaddafi protesters outside.

Embassy staff were subsequently allowed to leave Britain, but diplomatic ties with Libya were severed.

Those seeking justice for Fletcher, however, were given a boost on Friday when it emerged that the Crown Prosecution Service had heard a witness account that identified a junior diplomat, Abdulmagid Salah Ameri, as the possible gunman.

On Saturday, the international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, said the emergence of a new suspect would be raised with the NTC. The government would, he said, be pursuing the case "in every way we can".