British police to visit Tripoli to conduct investigations into airline bombing and assassination of PC Yvonne Fletcher
Libya has given the green light for British police to visit the country to conduct investigations into the Lockerbie bombing and the assassination of PC Yvonne Fletcher, the British foreign minister Alistair Burt has said.
The governing National Transitional Council had stalled on earlier requests for officers to travel to Libya, but Burt said the new Libyan government, sworn in last weekend, would co-operate.
Libya's interior minister, Fawzy Abdel Aal, confirmed on Thursday morning he would agree to "the early return of the Dumfries and Galloway police in relation to Lockerbie", said Burt.
The minister, who is on a two-day visit to Tripoli, said Abdel Aal had made the same promise regarding the investigation into the killing of Fletcher, gunned down outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984. "We are very keen that the Metropolitan police should return to continue their investigation," Burt said. "The Libyan government is aware of how important it is."
He said Libyan officials had given no dates for the visits, but expected it to happen soon, adding: "This is a new government, I think they have a lot on their plate."
Investigators in the UK are likely to view this as an important step forward. Detectives in London are keen to interview former Libyan diplomats who were stationed in the embassy at the time of the shooting, which saw diplomatic relations frozen with Libya.
Scottish investigators want to interview Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, jailed for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing but released on grounds of ill health by the Scottish government in August 2009. He currently lives in Tripoli, reportedly in ill-health.
Burt told journalists the move was an important confidence-building measure between Libya's new government and the UK. He said Libya was being offered the chance for security training from the Metropolitan police and the army, and that British security and education consultants were being encouraged to bid for work in Libya.
"There is authority and order," he said of Tripoli, whose authorities have begun a two-week security operation on the streets to weed out rogue militias. "That is a priority to make sure that the militias are absorbed into the security apparatus."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/08/libya-lockerbie-inquiry-police
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