Ex-Gaddafi minister held over UK police killing

A Libyan man bailed over the murder of a British policewoman outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984 was on Monday identified by British media as a former Libyan education minister.

The police on Thursday arrested a man in his 50s on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, and he was named by newspapers including the Sunday Mirror and Guardian as Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk.

He is a former education minister and high-ranking member of former leader Muammar Gaddafi’s revolutionary committees who has claimed asylum in Britain, the Guardian reported Monday.

Yvonne Fletcher had been patrolling a small, peaceful demonstration outside the embassy in London’s St. James’s Square on April 17, 1984.

A rival demonstration of supporters of Libyan ruler Gaddafi had also turned out when “a number of shots were fired from within” the embassy, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The Guardian said Mabrouk was taking part in the counter demonstration.