A letter published in today’s Guardian speculates on the reasons for the Crown Prosecution Service announcement on Wednesday that a man connected to the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in 1984 cannot be prosecuted for reasons of national security:
• The UK government’s case has always been that the Libyans shot dead PC Yvonne Fletcher out of pure wickedness – implausible prima facie because it would make the closure of the Libyan People’s Bureau inevitable. In fact the UK government was warned by the Libyans several times on 16 and 17 April 1984 – both in Tripoli and London – that they expected trouble involving firearms. Western intelligence knew well that the violent Libyan dissident faction it supported – Al-Burkan – had agents inside the embassy. Outside the building, Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk uttered the last warning to police on the morning of the shooting and was promptly arrested; he was in custody when the shots were fired.
Despite the deafening warnings, the UK government took no preventive action – not even surveillance cameras were positioned – and several individuals escaped from the rear of the LPB before the lockdown began. No wonder they still want to keep it all secret under the “national security” blanket.
Dr Kevin Bannon
London
This, of course, will not be heartening news for British police officers. One sets out with noble intentions of serving Queen and country – to whom one swears an oath of allegiance – and then one is brutally assassinated. The culprit walks free, leaving friends, family more aggrieved than ever and colleagues bitterly contemplating the possibility of the same happening to them. Yet another indication of the level of decrepit corruption prevalent within our Establishment.
Alison Chabloz 