Government says Fischer did not meet the Lockerbie bomber
Newspaper reports that former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer met the Lockerbie bomber on a recent visit to Libya are untrue according to the Federal Government.
Tim Fischer
Federal Labour MP, Michael Danby, had reacted angrily to the reports. He told J-Wire: “If the reports are true, it’s worse than foolish. It’s a mistake.”
Fischer, who is currently Australia’s ambassador to The Vatican, travelled to Tripoli on a visit sanctioned by the Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs.
The occasion was the 40th anniversary of the Libyan Revolution and the ex-National Party leader was Australia’s special representative. Fischer’s connections to Arab leaders are well-documented and he is reported as having made claims that Israel once attacked a US naval vessel. Declassified documents revealed the “attack” was unfortunate friendly fire.
It has been reported that Fischer took time off from the lavish celebrations in the Libyan capital to meet mass murderer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, released recently on the the grounds of ill-health by the Scottish Parliament. Megrahi was convicted on 270 charges of murder after being found guilty of assembling the bomb that brought a Pan Am flight crashing to the ground in the southern Scottish town of Lockerbie.
Controversy is raging in Scotland over the decision to free Megrahi on the grounds he is suffering from prostrate cancer
But a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has told J-Wire: “Tim Fischer did not meet with the Lockerbie bomber while he was in Tripoli. He didn’t meet Colonel Gaddafi either. Tim attended a few events Gaddafi was at also but they did not meet or speak.”
Australia’s trade figures with Libya are negligible event though the Howard Government opened a Trade Office there in 2004 and appointed a Trade Commissioner.
