Gadaffy blocks pursuit of WPc's killer

Colonel Gadaffy has refused to let senior Scotland Yard officers question the prime suspect in the murder of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher.

The head of the anti-terrorist branch was among the party which travelled to Libya to demand justice for the Pc who was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in Westminster 18 years ago.

The Libyan leader prevented Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry and his colleagues gaining access to the suspect.

Mr Fry went to Tripoli with Foreign Office officials to question Abel Gader Tuhami who they have been seeking since diplomatic ties were reopened three years ago.

Britain renewed links in 1999 on condition that Libya hand over Pc Fletcher's killer and the agent behind the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing. Last February Libyan intelligence officer Abdul Baset Ali al-Negrahi was jailed for 20 years for masterminding the attack on a PanAm jet which killed 270 people. Pc Fletcher, 25, was hit in the back by a shot fired from a window of the embassy during an anti-Gadaffy protest. The main suspect was never charged but he was deported along with other Libyan diplomats.

A security source told the Sun: "We are getting nowhere. The Libyans have gained from sanctions being suspended yet there is still no sign of justice for Pc Fletcher."