PHILADELPHIA -- A gun given by a Pennsylvania businessman to one of two former CIA agents wanted for allegedly shipping explosives to Libya has been linked to the London slaying of a Libyan dissident, a published report says.
The Bulletin reported Sunday that Joseph G. McElroy, 43, of West Reading, Pa., is a key witness in the government's case against former CIA agents Edwin Wilson and Francis Terpil.
McElroy told federal agents that he gave a gun to Terpil at a meeting in Washington before the May 1980 assassination in London of Mustafa Ramadan, an outspoken critic of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, the newspaper said. London authorities have linked the gun to Ramadan's killing, The Bulletin said.
In July, McElroy was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Cahn in Philadelphia to a six-month term in the federal prison at Allenwood, Pa. He pleaded no defense to income tax evasion, illegal weapons sales overseas and importing $24 million in promissory notes issued by the Sudanese government without notifying the U.S. Treasury Department.
The newspaper cited Justice Department sources as saying that McElroy, who is in federal custody, received the minimum sentence because he agreed to testify against Wilson and Terpil, both fugitives, if they are ever apprehended. Wilson reportedly is living in Libya and Terpil somewhere in the Middle East.
The involvement of Wilson and Terpil with Khadafy is the subject of a grand jury investigation in Washington, the newspaper said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carol Bruce told Judge Cahn that McElroy's testimony would provide a link between Terpil and the slaying of Ramadan.
She told Cahn that Ramadan was shot outside a London mosque by one of two armed men, The Bulletin said. A Colt .38-caliber revolver that was dropped by the gunman who did not fire his weapon was recovered and turned over to Scotland Yard.
U.S. Treasury agents traced the handgun to McElroy's collection of 50 weapons, the newspaper said. McElroy, who owned Pennsylvania Mining Co. in Wyomissing, Pa., originally told investigators he bought the guns as gifts to improve his business dealings in African and Middle East nations, it said.
