“It is not unusual for the PSNI to be asked to support the National Police Improvement Agency in work in foreign countries ... All the legislative requirements were met in the case of the recent secondment to Libya.
The row over the police training followed reports last week that officers of Britain’s elite Special Air Services (SAS) regiment had been passing on skills to Libyan soldiers for the past six months.
Those revelations last week sparked immediate speculation about a link with the al-Megrahi release.
The first moves towards setting up the training agreement were reported to have begun after former prime minister Tony Blair visited Libya in 2004.
Libya later officially announced that it would renounce developing so-called weapons of mass destruction.
“We have ongoing co-operation with Libya in the field of defence, but to suggest that this is part of any deal related to Megrahi is simply untrue,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said. dpa at mt
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