THE TELEGRAPH: British police officers have been secretly training members of Libya's force despite the country's refusal to hand over the killer of Pc Yvonne Fletcher.
The training programme, which was approved by Jacqui Smith when she was home secretary, began shortly after Tony Blair met the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, in 2007. It has been described as an "insult to the memory of Yvonne Fletcher" and a "stab in the back" for officers.
The disclosure came days after the Police Federation accused the Government of "selling its soul for trade deals" with Libya after allegedly agreeing that the gunman who shot Pc Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy 25 years ago would not be tried in Britain.
It was understood that Pc Fletcher's own force, the Metropolitan Police, was among those thought to have sent officers to Libya, along with at least one officer from Northern Ireland, where dozens of civilians were killed by IRA bombs made with Libyan-supplied Semtex.
The police training scheme was organised by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) following a request from the Foreign Office, the British embassy in Tripoli and the Home Office. It involves British officers training their Libyan counterparts in leadership and forensic techniques.
Paul McKeever, the chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, described the Foreign Office as "naïve and insensitive" in setting up the scheme.
"This will anger and disgust rank and file officers who believe Libya should be more proactive in securing the arrest of Pc Fletcher's killer," he said. "This one-way traffic, where we do all the giving and they just take, must stop." >>> Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor | Friday, September 18, 2009
