B GIBBS (Oxford Mail ViewPoints, July 20) is right to challenge Susan Thomas about the shooting of Pc Yvonne Fletcher.

The person responsible was identified long ago and only escaped justice because he was beyond the reach of British jurisdiction. Mr Gibbs would however be wise to keep an open mind about the Lockerbie bombing.

Admittedly, conventional wisdom holds that Libya carried out the attack.

Nevertheless there have been persistent rumours that Syria rather than Libya was responsible for the bombing, possibly with Iranian assistance.

There can be little doubt that Syria and Iran both have regimes no less brutal than was Gaddafi in Libya and either would have been capable of carrying out such an atrocity. I doubt whether we will ever know but it would not surprise me if, buried somewhere deep inside government files, there is evidence that the wrong country was fingered for Lockerbie.

Certainly it would help to explain why Megrahi was allowed to go free if the Government knew of such evidence and wished to prevent it coming out in court.

CHRIS ROBINS, Foxdown Close, Kidlington