Reopen WPc Fletcher murder case, PM told
Colleague who cradled dying officer says CPS must prosecute suspect High Court found liable for death
BORIS JOHNSON is being urged to order ministers to release key evidence that would allow prosecutors to resume a prosecution of a Libyan found by the High Court to be “jointly liable” for the fatal shooting of WPc Yvonne Fletcher.
In a landmark civil ruling last month, 37 years after the police officer was gunned down outside the Libyan embassy in London, Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk was ruled to have been behind the “cowardly attack”.
Mr Justice Martin Spencer awarded “valedictory” damages of £1 to John Murray, a police officer who had cradled the 25-year-old Metropolitan Police constable as she lay dying.
Mabrouk, who had been living in Reading, Berks, until 2019, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder WPc Fletcher in 2015.
However, a criminal investigation was dropped in 2017 after evidence was withheld on grounds of “national security”, prompting fury among police officers and prompting Mr Murray to bring a civil claim in the High Court. Now, in a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Murray has asked him to “direct the Home and Foreign Secretaries to reconsider their decision; thereby allowing the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] to resume its prosecution of Mabrouk”.
In the letter, sent on Nov 29, Matthew Jury, Mr Murray’s solicitor, said: “The original decision by HMG [Her Majesty’s Government] to withhold key materials was arguably a manifest and improper interference with the due course of justice.
“In any event, it is reasonable to say that this decision must now be revisited, if only because any prior interference is harder to justify – if it could ever be justified at all – in light of the High Court’s ruling.”
Mr Murray reminded Mr Johnson that he had described WPc Fletcher’s killing as “cowardly” and had told MPs in the House of Commons last year that this was “a very important subject”.
Mr Johnson had also committed to “see what we can do to take the matter forward” in the Commons, and then agreed in a private meeting with Allan Dorans, the SNP MP, to look again at the CPS’s original decision.
Mr Murray also asked him to confirm whether Mabrouk had been handed “a ‘comfort letter’ equivalent to those given by the Blair government to IRA ‘On-The-Runs’ following a secret agreement with the IRA/Sinn Fein in 2000”. Mabrouk is understood to be currently living in Libya, the letter added.
Senior counter terrorism detectives visited Libya to investigate the murder of WPc Fletcher at the end of last month’s hearing “to discuss how to proceed with the investigation”, Libyan television said.
The Metropolitan Police sent an observer to the court during the case. Police have stressed that the murder inquiry is ongoing but sources have accepted that the case had not been progressed since 2017, when the prosecution of Mabrouk was effectively blocked.
Number 10 was approached for comment. Mabrouk has declined to participate in the civil trial and has denied any involvement in the shooting.
Mr Dorans said last night: “The Government is clearly and deliberately withholding information which could assist in the criminal prosecution of Saleh Mabrouk for his involvement in the murder of WPc Fletcher.
“This is not only an insult to the memory of Yvonne but to the commitment, dedication, and bravery of Police Officers, past and present who put their life on the line on behalf of us all, daily.”
A government source said that officials do not routinely comment on individual cases, and it would not be appropriate for the Home Office to comment on a civil claim.