The police officer who cradled Yvonne Fletcher as she lay dying is bringing a private prosecution for conspiracy to murder against a close aide to Muammar Gaddafi.
Legal advice obtained by John Murray, a retired officer, has given the green light to bring a criminal case against Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk.
A groundbreaking civil case has already found Mabrouk responsible for WPc Fletcher’s death. She was shot and killed by a bullet fired from the Libyan embassy as she policed a demonstration in April 1984.
Mabrouk was arrested in 2015 but the criminal case against him was dropped in 2017 after the Metropolitan Police was prevented from using key evidence on grounds of national security.
Sources have suggested that Mabrouk may have been recruited as a “state asset” and given some form of “comfort letter” that prevented the prosecution going ahead.
Mr Murray, 67, said: “The legal advice we have had back gives us hope that a private prosecution will succeed.
“It is clearly something we should not have to do because this case should have been brought by the Crown Prosecution Service. But we just want to see Mabrouk behind bars.”
Lawyers for Mr Murray are currently acting pro bono but will begin crowdfunding to pay for what will likely be a costly case.
Mr Murray’s legal team has obtained police and CPS files on the case but recognises it will need to track down witnesses so they can testify in court. In the case of witnesses who have since died, testimony taken at the time can be admitted.
His law firm McCue Jury and Partners obtained expert advice from an outside KC who concluded this was the last opportunity to get Mabrouk into a criminal court. He denies all wrongdoing and is currently living in Libya having been excluded from the UK in 2019 after being declared by the then home secretary on the grounds of “not being conducive to the public good”.
In 2021 – 37 years after WPc Fletcher was fatally wounded – the High Court found him “jointly liable” for her death.
Although the test for a conviction in the criminal courts is higher – cases have to be proved beyond reasonable doubt rather than on the balance of probabilities – Mr Justice Spencer said in his judgment that “I consider that the matter to which I am alluding also passes the criminal standard”.
Prosecutions can be brought by individuals or organisations – such as animal cruelty cases prosecuted by the RSPCA – but individuals bringing cases have tended not to succeed in the past.
The most famous private prosecution was brought against the alleged killers of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, but the private prosecution collapsed due to a lack of evidence. Convictions were only finally obtained many years later.
In the case of WPc Fletcher, Mr Murray believes this is the last opportunity to obtain a criminal conviction.
Mabrouk, who lived in Reading, Berkshire, was not present when WPc Fletcher was shot, having already been detained by the police prior to the demonstration.
But the High Court found he was part of a small cabal who ran the embassy on behalf of Gaddafi and that he had “clearly assisted” in the plan to shoot dissidents protesting outside the embassy on the day.
Matt Jury, managing partner of McCue Jury & Partners, said: “The High Court ruling that found Saleh responsible for Yvonne’s murder served to demonstrate a criminal trial can take place, with or without the so-called national security material. So, will the Government continue to block Saleh’s extradition and prosecution and, if so, why? John’s campaign for justice is far from over. There remain too many unanswered questions.”