British government admits trade a factor in Megrahi release

TRADE deals with Libya played a "very big part" in Britain's decision to include the Lockerbie bomber in a prisoner transfer deal with Tripoli, a Government minister acknowledged in an interview.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that trade and an oil exploration deal between BP and Libya were factors in deciding whether to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi eligible for transfer to a prison back home.

However, his spokesman insisted Megrahi's release was not agreed because any possible transfer was always subject to a veto by the Scottish authorities.

Asked if trade and oil were part of the discussions, Straw said: "Yes, a very big part of that. I'm unapologetic about that... Libya was a rogue state. We wanted to bring it back into the fold.

"And yes, that included trade because trade is an essential part of it and subsequently there was the BP deal."

Megrahi, the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of a plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie which killed 270 people, was released last month on compassionate grounds because he is terminally ill.

Scotland rejected a prison transfer for Megrahi. Yet London has been forced to deny allegations that it struck a deal with Libya to free him in return for improved trade ties.

Documents released this week show Mr Straw initially opposed including Megrahi in the prison transfer agreement due to opposition from Scotland - but changed his mind, citing "wider negotiations" with Tripoli.

At the time, talks on the ratification of a huge oil deal between BP and Libya had become bogged down.

The $US900 million ($1.07 billion) deal was ratified in January 2008 shortly after Mr Straw's change of mind.

Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa said in an interview that trade had nothing to do with Megrahi's release.

"You should not do an injustice to the British government," he told The Times from Tripoli.

"It was nothing to do with trade. If we wished to bargain we would have done it a long time ago."

BP said on Friday it had lobbied Britain to speed up the agreement with Libya to improve business relations, but denied pressing for Megrahi to be released.

Source: The Australian

Lockerbie bomber papers put pressure on Gordon Brown

Tom Baldwin

BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been accused of double dealing after an official document emerged claiming that Libya was told that he wanted the Lockerbie bomber to die a free man.

The disclosure threatens to undermine the Government's determinedly neutral stance over the release of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi.

It could also deepen the rift with the Obama administration, which has demanded answers from the Government over its role in the affair.

Papers released by the Scottish government included the minutes of a meeting earlier this year during which a Libyan official stated that Bill Rammell, then a foreign office minister, had told Tripioli that neither the Prime Minister nor David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, "would want Mr Megrahi to pass away in prison".

Britain is under pressure over the decision to strike a prisoner transfer deal with Libya. Revelations that Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, believed that such a deal would be in the overwhelming interests of the UK have infuriated US diplomats.

The release of documents in both London and Edinburgh also show the pressure being applied by business leaders on Scotland to release al-Megrahi.

Lord Trefgarne, of the Libyan British Business Council, wrote saying that the possibility of al-Megrahi dying in prison would have "serious implications for UK-Libyan relations".

If his return under the prisoner agreement was not possible then the executive should consider compassionate release, the Tory peer added.

Mr Rammell, who visited Tripoli in February, did not dispute Libyan claims about the views he attrributed to Mr Brown and Mr Miliband. He said the decision to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds had been one for the Scottish government.

Downing Street sources did not comment directly on the claims but they pointed out that even the words attributed to Mr Rammell had been followed by an explicit statement that the matter of al-Megrahi's future was for the Scottish executive to decide.

David Cameron accused Mr Brown of double dealing and demand an inquiry: "The Prime Minister has got to be straight with the British people."

Source: The Australian

UK: No trade link to Libyan release

The UK government has denied that the release of Adbelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, had any connection to trade ties with Libya.

A report in The Sunday Times, a British newspaper, alleged that an oil deal had influenced the decision to transfer al-Megrahi from prison in Scotland to his home in Libya last week.

The newspaper said that it had ascertained leaked letters written by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, in 2007 in which he said that it was "in the overwhelming interest of the United Kingdom" not to exclude al-Megrahi from a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya.

Straw had written to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who made the formal decision to release al-Megrahi.

Six weeks after the letter was written an oil deal between Libya and BP, a UK oil firm, was formalised.

Following The Sunday Times' article Straw said that the prisoner transfer agreement was part of an attempt to end Libya's international isolation following Tripoli's abandonment of a nuclear weapons programme.

"What is totally untrue is that any part of these negotiations with the Libyans was that at some stage Mr Megrahi would be released," Straw said.

He said that the Scottish government maintained veto power over any prisoner transfer and had rejected such a move for al-Megrahi, rather choosing a compassionate release.

"The implication that, somehow or other, we have done some backdoor deal in order to release Mr Megrahi is simply nonsense," Straw said.

Al-Megrahi was convicted of bombing a Pan Am flight over the Scotish town of Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 people.

He was freed on compassionate grounds, as he is said to be suffering from terminal cancer.

Al-Megrahi was admitted to a Tripoli hospital on Sunday after his condition deteriorated rapidly.

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Source: Al Jazeera (English)