Yvonne Fletcher’s killer named

Wednesday, 18 July 2012 09:46

Written by Editor

WPC Fletcher’s killer has been named by a senior adviser to Libya’s Prime Minister. Ashur Shamis, who described it as “mind boggling” that Britain has done so little to pursue the case of the shot fired from the Libyan Embassy in St Jame’s Square, London, in April 1984. He names the shooter as Salah Eddin Khalifa in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph and claims that Khalifa is still alive and living in a north African town since fleeing Libya as the Gaddafi regime collapsed last year.

His claims were confirmed to the paper by several sources from the former regime they claim. Ten dissidents, one of whom was Mr Shamis, were also injured during the anti-Gaddafi demonstration that was taking place outside the embassy. Within minutes of the killing, Mr Shamis claims that Mr Khalifa left the embassy by the back door prior to its being surrounded by Metropolitan Police as he did not have diplomatic immunity and could have been detained before leaving the country.

It is claimed that he was part of a “revolutionary Committee” of pro-Gaddafi  students. However, Britain has rejected his claims of a lack of action saying that the issue was raised every time British and Libyan ministers met.

Libyan government sources said “further significant developments could be announced as early as this week.”
Mr Shamis went on to say his contacts in the Gaddafi regime had given him the name of the killer before last year’s revolution and he had since been able to confirm it in government. He said that progress into Yvonne Fletcher’s killing and the injuries sustained by himself and others at the demonstration since the revolution almost a year ago had been slow and accused Britain of dragging its feet for political reasons. “It is time to do something about this. I keep hearing this name again and again,” he said in the interview.

Abdulmajid Buik, a member of the commission responsible for removing Gaddafi-era figures from state institutions separately confirmed Khalifa as the killer according to the report.

The case of WPC Fletcher remains the only unsolved murder of a serving police officer of the 37 killed over the last 30 years. Mr Mohammed al-Alaghi who served as Justice Minister for the first 4 months after Gaddafi’s overthrow claimed that the “British know who killed PC Fletcher but they discussed it with the old regime and came to a compromise which was shameful,” according to The Sunday Telegraph’s report.