Libyans expelled 'to stop Lockerbie trial'

MICHAEL SHERIDAN

Diplomatic Editor

Britain yesterday expelled the senior Libyan diplomat in London after the security services provided evidence that he was spying on dissidents opposed to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The move roused an immediate response from the Labour MP Tam Dalyell, who said the Government might have made the move to forestall potentially embarrassing Libyan concessions over the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

Libya last night ordered David Hawkes, head of the British Interests Section in Tripoli to leave the country before 25 December, accusing him of activities incompatible with his diplomatic status. Britain is represented in Tripoli by two diplomats who work at the Italian embassy. The Foreign Office had said there would be no justification for reciprocal measures against them.

The Foreign Office said it summoned the Saudi Arabian ambassador, whose country protects Libyan interests in Britain, to tell him the diplomat, Khalifa Ahmed Bazelya, was to leave London by 25 December. It said Mr Bazelya had engaged in "activities incompatible with his status", the usual language for espionage orcriminal behaviour. Security sources said the envoy had engaged in surveillance of Libyan opposition figures in London.

Mr Dalyell is to ask John Major about the decision at Prime Minister's question time on Thursday. "I would like to be quite certain that the expulsion has nothing to do with the pressure the Foreign Office is under to have the Lockerbie trial of the two alleged Libyan suspects in Scotland, and the danger, from their viewpoint, of Libyan agreement to a trial there," he said yesterday.

Two alleged Libyan agents have been charged by Scottish law authorities with placing a bomb aboard Flight 103 in December 1988. Libya refuses to hand them over, saying they cannot receive a fair trial in Britain or the United States. The UN has imposed sanctions to compel Colonel Gaddafi to yield the men.

Mr Dalyell and other critics contend the Government is engaged in a cover-up to put all the blame for Lockerbie on Libya. "The last thing the British government wants is a trial in this country at which their bluff could be drawn," Mr Dalyell said. Ministers deny there is any truth to Mr Dalyell's suspicions and say they would welcome a trial in Scotland. There was no connection between yesterday's expulsion and Lockerbie, officials said.