[This is the headline over a Press Association news agency report issued yesterday evening. It reads in part:]
Ministers will discuss the Lockerbie bomber's fate with their Libyan
counterparts following the death of toppled dictator Colonel Muammar
Gaddafi, MPs have been told.
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt
said the legal position of Libyan agent Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al
Megrahi appeared to have been settled, but said it was one of several
topics Britain planned to raise with the Arab country's new leadership,
including supplying explosives to Irish terrorists and the killing of
WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.
Mr
Burt told the Commons: "There are two or three legacy issues which need
to be dealt with, not only that (Megrahi), but also issues in relation
to the provision of Semtex to the IRA and the death of WPC Fletcher.
"All
these will be considered. It's an important part of the new bilateral
relationship between the UK and Libya, but not all these issues are
presently settled.
"The legal position of Mr Al Megrahi appears to
have been settled by past actions, but the legacy issues will be
examined anew by this Government and the new government of the National
Transitional Council." (...)
Legacy issues or not Megrahi's situation is nothing to do with the UK government. He remains free on licence and is still Scotland's concern. Clinton can try as hard as she wants to influence the UK, and we know from experience that Westminster Governments tend to do as the White House tells them, but the UK government can do no deals here. Where is Salmond? He's staying surprisingly quiet.
ReplyDeleteThe headline and the first three paragraphs of the PA story appear, if Hansard is correct, to be made up.
ReplyDeleteHansard:
"...legacy issues that need to be dealt with. There are also issues relating to the provision of Semtex to the IRA..."
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm111025/debtext/111025-0001.htm#11102537000589
Press Association: "Mr Burt told the Commons:
"...legacy issues which need to be dealt with, not only that (Megrahi), but also ..." "
......
Both: "The legal position of Mr Megrahi appears to have been settled by past actions, but the legacy issues will be examined anew..."