Libyan put home in wife’s name as Fletcher case loomed
Gaddafi aide found liable for 1984 shooting told to pay costs of legal action
THE Libyan aide to Col Muammar Gaddafi found responsible for policewoman Yvonne Fletcher’s death transferred ownership of his house to his wife prior to losing a landmark legal case.
A High Court judge ruled last week that Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk was “jointly liable” for the death of WPc Fletcher who was gunned down in front of the Libyan embassy in April 1984. It was the first time in 37 years that anybody had been found culpable for her murder.
Mr Justice Martin Spencer ordered Mabrouk pay the costs of the case, likely to be several hundred thousand pounds following a threeday trial.
But it has emerged that Mabrouk transferred sole ownership of the family home in Reading to his wife in March 2020, less than a year after he was served notice he was being sued.
Mabrouk was prevented from returning to the UK after being expelled by the British Government and now lives in Libya, where he is said to be planning to run for public office.
His wife Kamila Otman, who st i ll occupies the detached house, said the couple were now divorced.
The case against Mabrouk was brought by John Murray, the police officer who cradled her as she lay dying. Yesterday, Mr Murray, 66, travelled from his home in Chingford, north-east London, to her grave in Semley, a village in Wiltshire, to tell her the case had been won.
“It was something I just had to do. I told her we had won the case. Just that. It meant so much to me to do that,” said Mr Murray.
He said he would be pursuing Mabrouk for the legal costs of the case which was funded by the Police Federation. “We can still go after the costs,” said Mr Murray, “It doesn’t stop us that he put
‘It was something I just had to do. It meant so much to me to do that’
the house in his wife’s name.”
Land registry documents show the house was bought by Mabrouk and his wife in July 2009 for £385,000.
There is no mortgage on the property. The house is now worthin the region of £750,000, more than double what the couple paid for it. The documents show that on March 18 2020, the ownership was transferred solely into the name of Kamila Otman.
Mabrouk declined to contest the legal case and has insisted he had no involvement in the death of the 25-year-old officer.
Mabrouk had been arrested on the morning of the demonstration by antiGaddafi protests. But he was one of four men who ran the embassy and on the morning of the shooting, prior to his arrest for trying to stop the erection of barriers that threatened to block the line of sight of his gunmen, had warned: “We have guns here today. There is going to be fighting.”
Ms Otman said: “I know he had nothing to do with the murder of Yvonne Fletcher. He wasn’t at the embassy at the time.
“He was in the police station because he had been arrested after having an argument with another Libyan outside the building.”
Mabrouk was expelled in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and then allowed back to the UK in 1999 after diplomatic relations with Libya were restored.
He settled in Reading in 2009 but was arrested in 2015 for conspiracy to murder WPc Fletcher.
The criminal investigation was dropped in 2017 when the Government refused to make available secret evidence and Mabrouk returned to Libya after being told he was no longer conducive to the public good.