Hague looks for Lockerbie and Fletcher justice

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

William Hague today played down suggestions that the new Libyan government will block fresh efforts to secure justice for the Lockerbie bombing and Yvonne Fletcher murder.

The Foreign Secretary said the leader of the National Transitional Council (NTC) had pledged to "cooperate fully" with the British authorities.

Hopes have been raised in the case of WPC Fletcher - who was shot while policing a protest outside the Libyan embassy in 1984 - after junior diplomat Abdulmagid Salah Ameri was named as the prime suspect.

However, the Sunday Times reported that NTC member Hassan al-Sagheer had dismissed the prospect of a British trial being held.

He also apparently rejected the idea that the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, could be returned to prison in the UK.

"Libya has never extradited or handed over its citizens to a foreign country," Mr Ameri said. "We shall continue with this principle."

Speaking in a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Mr Hague said: "This is an ongoing police investigation so it is quite difficult for me to comment.

"I would say that when chairman (Mustafa Abdel) Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council, was with us in London in May he committed himself and the council to co-operating fully with the British government on this issue.

"It is true, it is a fact, that there is no extradition treaty with Libya. but we look to them to cooperate fully.

"So I would not take what has been written in the press today as the last word."

PA