Saif Gaddafi’s mention of court gives hope for IRA victims

No. 10 said this morning that the dedicated FCO staff who will be helping the IRA victims’ legal action against the Libyan state was not entirely new – “there has been some support like this available already,” we were told, this is “enhancing” work that is already done.

Jason McCue, lawyer for the IRA victims and their families, says that’s news to him and that the FCO door has been pretty well slammed shut to his team until the last 24 hours.

Interestingly, Mr McCue insists he’s not disheartened by Saif Gaddafi’s interview in which he sounded to many as though he was refusing to pay any compensation to IRA victims.

The very fact that he talks of fighting the case in the courts gives Mr McCue hope that this will all end, one day, in a negotiation of some kind and some big cheques.

Lockerbie victims got eight million US dollars per family – a huge chunk of it is actually US companies’ money recycled (big US companies trading with Libya pay into a victims’ compensation fund). Mr McCue’s guess is that many IRA victims are so frustrated they wouldn’t baulk at a similar arrangement.