Yvonne Fletcher investigation will receive co-operation from Libya

Only one of three main suspects into fatal shooting of police officer in 1984 remains alive, says Tripoli interim government David Cameron has said Libya’s interim government will co-operate with the Metropolitan police investigation into the 1984 killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher. The prime minister’s comments come as it was reported that only one of the three main suspects in the shooting from the Libyan embassy in London 27 years ago remains alive. “There is an ongoing police investigation and I am sure the new authorities in Libya will co-operate in that investigation,” Cameron said. “We have got to let the new government find its feet.” He added: “The murder of Yvonne Fletcher was a reminder of the horrors that happened under the Gaddafi regime, and we should be celebrating today that that regime is coming to an end, and that Britain has played a proud part in that.” The prime minister said his sympathies remained with the police officer’s family. Fletcher, 25, died from a shot fired from inside the embassy during an anti-Gaddafi demonstration. After an 11-day siege, 30 Libyans in the embassy were deported. Nobody was ever charged with her killing. Three Libyan officials were named by those campaigning for justice for the Fletcher family as being implicated in the machine gun attack. One of the diplomats, Abdulqadir al-Baghdadi, who later became head of Gaddafi’s Revolutionary Guards, was found dead in a suburb of Tripoli last week, an National Transitional Council official announced on Tuesday. According to Usama el-Abed, deputy chief of Tripoli’s new city council, Baghdadi’s body was found with several other corpses in a government building. He had been shot in the head, possibly in an internal feud, Abed said. “We think this was done a week or 10 days ago.” A junior diplomat, Abdulmagid Salah Ameri, who was reportedly seen firing a gun from inside the embassy, has not been seen since being deported from the UK in 1984. He is now believed to have died some time ago. Only the third suspect, Matouk Mohammed Matouk, is thought to be alive. Ali Tarhouni, the de facto deputy prime minister of the new government, was quoted by a Libyan newspaper this week as saying: “We know where he is.” The Foreign Office has confirmed that Metropolitan police detectives may return to Libya to continue their investigations once conditions on the ground become safer. The foreign secretary, William Hague, has acknowledged that Libyan law stops it extraditing its own citizens but said this was an issue “we will have to resolve depending on how the police investigation goes”. Libya Middle East Africa Metropolitan police London Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk

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