NTC ‘won’t deport Al-Megrahi’

The new Libyan government last night claimed it will not deport the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing as William Hague said the rebels had pledged to “co-operate fully” with the British authorities.

The Foreign Secretary yesterday played down suggestions that the new Libyan government will block fresh efforts to secure justice for the Lockerbie bombing and Yvonne Fletcher murder.

Mr Hague said the leader of the National Transitional Council (NTC) had pledged to “co-operate fully” with the British authorities but the rebel Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi told journalists in Tripoli that no Libyan citizen would be deported, including Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

Mr Al-Megrahi was convicted in a Scottish court and imprisoned for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.

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 Mr al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, 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.”