Libya plans to fight UK's bid for IRA victims' compensation

Published on Monday 7 September 2009 09:38

THE son of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi said today his country would resist demands from IRA victims for compensation.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said any compensation arising from alleged Libyan arms supplies to the terror group would be a matter for the courts.

In an interview with Sky News, he also said Gordon Brown had not been involved in talks over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

He also condemned British politicians as "disgusting and immoral" for using the case of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi to make political capital.

Mr Gaddafi's comments came hours after Mr Brown announced that he was setting up a dedicated Foreign Office team to assist the IRA victims.

Of the looming British attempts to extricate compensation, the Libyan leader's son said: "Anyone can knock on our door. You go to the court. They have their lawyers. We have our lawyers."

When asked if his answer to the compensation demand would be "no" in the first instance, he replied: "Of course."

Mr Brown said last night that the Foreign Office team dealing with the IRA victims would be accompanied by representatives of Britain's embassy in Tripoli in negotiations with the Libyan authorities expected within the next fortnight.

His announcement was seen as a U-turn, as it came after press reports that he had personally vetoed official pressure on Libya over the issue for fear of jeopardising relations with Tripoli.

He reportedly wrote to the victims' lawyer, Jason McCue to inform him that it would not be "appropriate" for ministers to open talks on compensation with the Libyan government.

Mr McCue last night said he was "overjoyed" by last night's decision and predicted that the active support of the Prime Minister could bring about a resolution to their long campaign for justice within a matter of weeks.

Britons injured by IRA bombs and families of those killed are demanding compensation because Libya allegedly supplied weapons including the Semtex explosives used by republican bomb-makers in their campaign of terror in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s.

The US government has already secured compensation totalling $1.5 billion – around 915m – for Americans affected by Libyan-sponsored terror.

Mr Brown said successive governments had raised the issue of Libya's support for the IRA over two decades, and the previous Conservative administration told the United Nations in 1996 that its questions about the issue had been satisfactorily answered by Tripoli.

He said:

"Our judgement has been that the course most likely to succeed and bring results is to support the families themselves in their legal representations through their lawyers to the Libyan authorities.

"In the coming weeks and months, I can say that we will step up our support by establishing a dedicated Foreign Office support for the victims' campaign."