Justice for Yvonne
37 years after embassy siege, Gaddafi aide found liable for WPC’s murder
A LIBYAN politician given asylum in Britain was jointly liable for killing WPC Yvonne Fletcher, the High Court ruled yesterday.
Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk, who was a minister under Muammar Gaddafi, has long been a prime suspect for the embassy siege murder in 1984.
And yesterday a judge concluded he was instrumental in the plan to fire on protesters outside the embassy even though he did not pull the trigger.
The civil claim was brought by John Murray, a retired police officer who cradled Miss Fletcher’s body as she lay dying.
He wept on hearing the judgment which means he has fulfilled his promise to the 25-year-old that he would bring her killers to justice. Miss Fletcher died in a hail of bullets as she policed a protest against Gaddafi in London’s St James’s Square in April 1984. Mabrouk was part of a ‘revolutionary committee’ that ran the embassy and he allowed gunmen with Sterling submachine guns to position themselves at the windows. He was granted political asylum in 2011 and studied for a PhD in Reading where he lived in a £385,000 home bought with cash.
In November 2015 he was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder only for Scotland Yard to drop the case 18 months later on grounds of ‘national security’.
Civil papers were then served in the case and Mabrouk was excluded from the UK in 2019 over his ‘suspected involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity’. He has now returned to his homeland.
Mr Justice Martin Spencer ruled Mabrouk was a prime mover and jointly liable in the plan to shoot the demonstrators and, if necessary, police officers. The move was orchestrated by Colonel Gaddafi who ‘could not tolerate dissent’ and was ‘prepared to approve murder on the streets of London’.
Reaching his decision on the lower civil standard, which requires proof on the balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt, the judge concluded: ‘Mr Murray has succeeded in showing that the defendant Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk is jointly liable with those who carried out the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher.’
He ordered the Libyan to pay nominal damages of £1 to Mr Murray for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Police colleagues wept and applauded the judge in the London courtroom as around 100 former officers from as far off as Australia and New Zealand watched the proceedings.
Following the ruling, Mr Murray, pictured, said: ‘We have finally achieved justice for Yvonne. This trial over the last few days should not have been necessary.
‘If you go back six years ago to Mabrouk’s arrest, a report was submitted by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service recommending he be prosecuted. The CPS agreed with that report, but due to late interference from the Home Office and Foreign Office, when they refused to allow vital evidence to be used, the prosecution did not go ahead.’
Mr Murray, who is originally from Aberdeen, said he was shocked to learn that Mabrouk had been allowed to return to Britain having been kicked out after the shooting.
The former officer’s solicitor, Matthew Jury of McCue Jury & Partners, called for a public inquiry, adding: ‘The Government’s manifest interference with justice in this case should be a source of shame and embarrassment.
‘Considering today’s judgment, the Government surely owes it to the British public to reconsider its decision to withhold evidence for use by the Crown Prosecution Service.’
Miss Fletcher’s family said in a statement: ‘Yvonne will always be in our thoughts and we will continue to be in close contact with New Scotland Yard regarding all aspects of her case.’
Mabrouk refused to participate in the case, telling lawyers: ‘I wasn’t present when WPC Fletcher was killed, nor did I instruct anyone to kill her, nor did I encourage anyone to kill her. I cannot be held liable for something I didn’t do.’
‘Shame and embarrassment’