Libya-IRA terror: Labour Party demands release of report into compensation for victims

Victims want to be compensated using assets which once belonged to Libyan leader Muammar Al-Gaddafi.

In the 1980s Col Gaddafi supplied massive shipments of weapons, including Semtex, to the IRA.

The material from Libya was used by the IRA in a deadly campaign of bombings across the UK.

An estimated £12 billion worth of Libyan assets linked to Col Gaddafi are frozen in the UK.

A campaign has been running for years for the frozen assets to be used to compensate victims and, in March 2019, former journalist William Shawcross was appointed as a special representative of the foreign secretary on the issue.

A report he drafted on the compensation issue has never been released.

The Labour Party has now written to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab demanding its release.

Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Louise Haigh, following a meeting with victims of the 1996 Docklands bombing, told Mr Rabb the “intolerable delay in the release of the report has left victims feeling abandoned”.

The Shawcross report was delivered to the government early last year.

In her letter, Ms Haigh said: “The physical and emotion toll these devastating acts of terror have left on victims have had consequences that last for generations.

“The intolerable delay in the release of this report has left victims feeling abandoned. The Docklands victims and all those affected by Gaddafi-sponsored IRA terror must not be left in the dark.

“It is time the report was urgently released and victims were given answers and the redress they have fought so long for.”

Docklands Victims’ Association chairman Jonathan Ganes,h who was injured in the bombing, said: “It was very kind of Louise Haigh and her colleagues to extend their help to our campaign for equality. For the UK government to now deny us the William Shawcross report is truly beyond belief.

“It is shameful the UK government would raise our expectations and then so cruelly deny us access to this report. The present UK Conservative government have put the victims through immense pain by the lack of genuine care.”

Joyce Brown, a toilet attendant who was working and injured in the Docklands bombing, said: “How can a government do this to victims of terror?

“It is not fair that we have been treated like this. We have campaigned for years to end this discrimination.”