Victims says UK Government must demand extradition of Libyan who allegedly supplied IRA with Semtex

Innocent Victims United, a Northern Ireland-based group focused on supporting victims of terrorism, said a failure to do so would fuel fears Tony Blair’s government had done a deal with Libya.

Abdullah al-Senussi, 68, is believed to have helped supply the IRA with Semtex explosive, which was used in more than 250 bombings.

He is currently in a Libyan jail alongside a fellow Lockerbie bomb suspect and is thought to be the brains behind the attack which blew up the New York-bound Pan Am flight 103 and killed all 249 on board in 1988.

Kenny Donaldson, spokesman for Innocent Victims United said: “If the UK Government fails to robustly call for al-Senussi’s extradition then it will further fuel fears that a deal was done between the Blair Government and Libya not to pursue those suspected of mass terrorist and criminal actions which resulted in the deaths of British citizens.

“And we need to be realistic. If they were prepared to do it with the Provisional IRA then doing it with Libya and Gaddafi’s regime would not be beyond them. All eyes are upon the administrations of both nation states. Justice and accountability must prevail.”

The comments come after lawyers for IRA victims wrote to home secretary Priti Patel to press for al-Senussi’s extradition, saying a failure to do so was a “stain on the UK’s international reputation”.

Aileen Quinton, whose mother was killed by a 1987 IRA Semtex bomb in Enniskillen on Remembrance Sunday, said: “Gaddafi’s regime has many victims and I pray the UK Government and Libya does not make the mistake of giving up on real justice.”