Ex-yard chief attacks Fletcher suspect’s asylum
Home Office accused of breaking own rules when finding in favour of suspect in Yvonne Fletcher murder
A former Scotland Yard chief accused the Home Office of breaching its rules in granting asylum to a Libyan who is the prime suspect in the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher. Sir Paul Stephenson said it was of huge “concern” that Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk had been allowed to stay in the UK.
THE Home Office has been accused by a former Scotland Yard Commissioner of a “puzzling” breach of its own rules in granting asylum to a Libyan wanted over the murder of Yvonne Fletcher.
Sir Paul Stephenson said it was of huge “concern” that Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk was allowed to stay in the UK, despite being the prime suspect for WPC Fletcher’s killing.
Mr Mabrouk is understood to have been granted asylum in 2012 when Theresa May was Home Secretary, five years after a review of the case named him as a conspirator in her murder.
On Tuesday, the murder case against Mr Mabrouk was blocked on grounds of “national security”, amid clamour for a full explanation. Concern that some form of deal has been done between the Government and Mr Mabrouk will be fuelled by the apparent breach in asylum rules.
Home Office guidelines state that asylum can be granted provided “there are no reasonable grounds for regarding them as a danger to the security of the United Kingdom”.
At the time, Mr Mabrouk had been named in prosecution documents, seen by The Telegraph, as a prime suspect in the murder of WPC Fletcher.
Sir Paul, who was Met Commissioner from 2009 to 2011, said: “It doesn’t feel right that we gave this man asylum. It is puzzling and concerning. If it is the case he was granted asylum then based on the rules as I understand them it is very puzzling. It adds to the argument that a full explanation is required for why the case was dropped.”
The Home Office refused to be drawn last night and declined to say if a suspect wanted over the murder of a police officer constituted a “danger to the security” of the UK. John Murray, a police officer who held WPC Fletcher as she lay dying after being shot outside the Libyan embassy in 1984, said the decision to give Mr Mabrouk asylum was “scandalous”.
He said it added to his conviction that Mr Mabrouk had been an agent for the British intelligence services at a time when the UK Government was attempting to bring Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime back into the fold after years as a terrorist pariah state.
“If he is a liaison between Libya and MI6, that would explain why he has got asylum,” said Mr Murray.
Mr Mabrouk, who is in his 50s, was expelled from Britain seven days after the murder in April 1984. But he was allowed to visit the UK in 2000, a year after Britain restored diplomatic relations with Libya. He subsequently fled to Britain and claimed asylum following the overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011.
The prosecution file names Mr Mabrouk as a ringleader inside the embassy and concluded the shooting was “pre-arranged”. According to the report, Mr Mabrouk had warned progaddafi supporters, who had been drafted in to stage a counter-demonstration against dissidents, where to stand to avoid being hit by gunfire.
Mr Mabrouk’s lawyers have insisted “not a shred of evidence” had been presented by police that suggested their client was involved in WPC Fletcher’s death. His lawyer said the Libyan re- ceived a letter from the Foreign office in 2002, offering him reassurance that he was not a suspect in the killing.
Mr Mabrouk was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in 2015 but told, after 18 months on police bail, that the case had been dropped.