Counter terrorism police in Libya to investigate WPC Fletcher’s murder
SENIOR counter terrorism detectives visited Libya to investigate the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher at the end of a trial that found an aide to Colonel Gaddafi responsible for the shooting.
Officers travelled to Tripoli on Monday to meet Libyan officials, raising hopes of a breakthrough in the 37-yearold murder inquiry.
Libyan television said two Metropolitan Police detectives had held talks “to discuss how to proceed with the investigation”. According to the reports, they flew in 24 hours before a judge in London ruled that Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk, a close aide to Gaddafi, had been “jointly liable” for WPC Fletcher’s death.
The High Court had heard evidence the week before of Mabrouk’s role in her murder. The Met Police had sent an observer to the court.
WPC Fletcher, 25, was fatally wounded while policing a demonstration at the Libyan embassy in St James’s Square in London in April 1984. Mabrouk was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder in 2015 but the case against him closed in 2017 when “key material” in the possession of the British government was not “made available for use in court in evidential form for reasons of national security”.
It is unclear whether Scotland Yard is trying to negotiate information from Libya that could reignite the case against Mabrouk or is investigating other Libyans who are also implicated.
Mabrouk, who was living in Reading until 2019, is accused of orchestrating the shooting but the gunman was separately named in court last week as Salah Sahli.
John Murray, 66, a colleague of WPC Fletcher who cradled her as she lay dying and who brought the civil claim, said: “This visit is very encouraging. It is obviously as a result of what we have done in bringing the civil claim.
“This is a big deal. I would think the last time police officers went out there was five or six years ago, before the criminal investigation into Mabrouk was shut down.”
Matt Jury, the lawyer who brought the legal claim on behalf of Mr Murray, said: “This is a huge development if investigators have gone to Tripoli at the end of the trial. The timing cannot be coincidental. The criminal case was never closed but it was moribund.”
The Metropolitan Police declined to comment yesterday. It is understood the officers were part of a counter terrorism unit that is based in the region and liaises with law enforcement agencies in north Africa and the Middle East.
Police have stressed that the murder inquiry remains ongoing but sources accepted that the case had not been progressed since 2017, when the prosecution of Mabrouk was effectively blocked.
Mabrouk, who is in Libya after being expelled from Britain, declined to participate in the civil trial and has denied any involvement in the shooting.