Page 122 - Once a copper 10 03 2020
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The police believed they already knew the killer’s identity. Using monitoring
equipment, they had overheard a heated argument inside the building
during which the gunman’s name was mentioned. All 30 occupants had to
give their names as they left. Only one matched.
He was said to be a man with dark hair, in his early 30s, a description that
fitted a strong suspect who always maintained his innocence. Though it was
reported that Fletcher’s killer was executed on arrival in Libya, the truth
appears to be that he was given a hero’s welcome.
Diplomatic relations between Britain and Libya were severed for 15 years,
until July 1999, after Gaddafi had agreed to hand over the two Libyans
accused of the Lockerbie bombing. After that, detectives from the
Metropolitan Police made several visits to Libya in the hope of cracking the
case, but without success.
Justice Betrayed
In October 2009, The Daily Telegraph revealed
startling new information about the killing of WPc
Yvonne Fletcher.
No one has ever been charged with her murder.
Drawing on the Telegraph’s reports, interviews with
key witnesses inside and outside the embassy that
day, Met officers and politicians, a TV documentary
shown in 2010 cast new light on the tragedy.
Tom Stone, a Telegraph reporter was granted
access to a document addressed to the Crown
Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police
Figure 53 Yvonne Fletcher Memorial that was clearly confidential.
Over 192 pages, it detailed one of the most
complicated and fraught murder investigations ever conducted by a British
police force.
It was an exhaustive account of the investigation into the death of WPC
Fletcher. There were mugshots and biographies of “significant parties;”
diagrams and photographs of the crime scene; forensic evidence. It read like
the blueprint to an assassination.
Crucially, the report concluded that there was enough evidence to
prosecute two Libyans for their alleged role in the murder of Yvonne Fletcher: Page122
Mohammed Matouk and Abdulgader Baghdadi.
