Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey has welcomed the decision of a Belfast court to permit the family of a man murdered by the IRA in 1991 to sue Libya, because the weapon used was supplied by the Gadaffi regime.

Lord Empey said:

“As a Member of the Parliamentary Support Group for Victims of Libyan Sponsored IRA Terrorism, I warmly welcome the outcome of the court case yesterday that allows the Kingsberry family to sue the Libyans for compensation following the murder of relatives by a weapon supplied by Libya.

“The Parliamentary Support Group has been greatly frustrated by the continual failure of successive governments to deal seriously with the issue of Gadaffi authorised weapons supplied to the IRA, while other Governments around the world have successfully received funds from Libya on behalf of their victims of terrorism.

“We have tried for years to get movement on this on an all-party basis, so far without success. There is an abject refusal by the Foreign Office to deal seriously with Libya on this, despite the fact that the UK has borne the brunt of the damage and loss from the semtex given to the IRA by Gadaffi.

“The recent Shawcross Report has been kept a secret and the Prime Minister wrote to us recently with a very disappointing and I would even say hopeless attitude.

“There needs to be some real political will from Downing Street about this. The Group has again asked to see Boris Johnson to impress upon him the need to bring justice to the victims.

“It was the use of our air bases by the USA to bomb Libya in the early 1980s that triggered the Libyan hostility to the UK and the semtex Gadaffi supplied extended the IRA campaign by many years, creating more and more victims.

“Boris says he wants to 'build back better' in this country. We would all agree with that. So why doesn't he do something better for the victims of Libyan sponsored terrorism, take their case seriously and fight for them the way other countries have fought for their victims?”