[This is the headline over a report published today on the BBC News website. It reads in part:]
A Libyan man has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder PC Yvonne Fletcher three decades ago.
PC Fletcher, 25, died after being shot while policing a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984.
Scotland Yard described the arrest of the man, in his 50s, as a "significant development".
He was detained on Thursday morning in south-east England and is now in custody. He is also suspected of money laundering offences.
Two other Libyan nationals - a woman in her 40s and a man in his 30s - were also arrested on Thursday on suspicion of money laundering.
Scotland Yard said the other two suspects, arrested at separate addresses in London and south-east England, are in police custody and that searches are under way across the country.
In a statement, PC Fletcher's family said her father had recently died, with his "one regret in life" being that he had "never witnessed any justice" over the shooting.
[RB: The suspect has now (Sunday 22 November) been named in the media as Dr Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk.]
A Libyan man has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder PC Yvonne Fletcher three decades ago.
PC Fletcher, 25, died after being shot while policing a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984.
Scotland Yard described the arrest of the man, in his 50s, as a "significant development".
He was detained on Thursday morning in south-east England and is now in custody. He is also suspected of money laundering offences.
Two other Libyan nationals - a woman in her 40s and a man in his 30s - were also arrested on Thursday on suspicion of money laundering.
Scotland Yard said the other two suspects, arrested at separate addresses in London and south-east England, are in police custody and that searches are under way across the country.
In a statement, PC Fletcher's family said her father had recently died, with his "one regret in life" being that he had "never witnessed any justice" over the shooting.
[RB: The suspect has now (Sunday 22 November) been named in the media as Dr Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk.]
Such a terrible story. Machine gun shooting from an embassy on an insignificant demonstration. Terribly bad publicity for Libya, because of one or more brainless idiot(s). Poor Yvonne and her boyfriend at her side.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Yvonne_Fletcher :
"Finally in June 2007, British detectives were able to interview the chief Libyan suspect for the first time following the normalisation of political ties with the country. Detectives spent seven weeks in Libya interviewing both witnesses and suspects. Queenie Fletcher, Yvonne's mother, described these developments as "promising".
In February 2009, Queenie Fletcher suggested that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who at the time was appealing his conviction for the Lockerbie bombing, should be moved to a prison in Libya, on condition that the Libyan government co-operate with detectives investigating her daughter's murder. Mrs. Fletcher said: "I know he is ill and I think he should be returned to a prison in Libya so his family can visit him. The appeal could still go ahead in Scotland, but he could stay in prison in Libya. It's got to be a fair exchange, so Yvonne's case can be closed. I'd like the police here to be given permission to interview whoever they've got to interview in Libya and see whoever they need to for someone to be brought to trial."
A sympathetic proposal.
- - -
30 years have passed, and that will usually make the case totally hopeless.
But so was Megrahi's and we still got a conviction out of it, so maybe...
I don't know where they will get evidence 30 years after the event, I suppose they could just make it up as they go along like they have so many times in the past.
ReplyDeleteThere are persistent "false flag" conspiracy theories about this, but overall I think the evidence that it was a Libyan operation is fairly convincing. Whether they have the right Libyan of course, is another matter. If they've had this evidence for a while but simply weren't in a position to act on it, it may be legit. (Of course, there have been times in the past when surely they could have acted on it, so you have to wonder.)
ReplyDeleteWell, if they're prepared to spend time and money on a single murder that happened over 30 years ago (and why not, they're still looking for Moira Anderson's killer as far as I know), they don't have much excuse for mounting a serious efort to track down the people who really blew up Pan Am 103.
Once they've acknowledged it wasn't Megrahi, of course.
.... don't have much excuse for NOT mounting....
Deleteduh.