The Lockerbie Case: UK to discuss bomber with Libyans

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

UK to discuss bomber with Libyans

[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." (...)

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has called for Megrahi to be sent back to Scotland in the aftermath of Col Gaddafi's death last week.

[The report on this matter in today's edition of The Herald can be read here.]

2 comments:

Jo G26 October, 2011
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.
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Matt Berkley27 October, 2011
The headline and the first three paragraphs of the PA story appear, if Hansard is correct, to be made up.

Hansard:

"...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..."
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