THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER: ABDELBASET AL MEGRAHI

The release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, was linked to a £400 million arms deal with Libya, according to secret documents.

Following disclosures, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, the documents show ‘reprehensible’ connections between the Labour government that aimed to boost business and freeing the man convicted of Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity.

In an email communication between the then UK ambassador in Tripoli to the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, further details have emerged of how a prisoner transfer agreement was aimed to be signed once Libya had fulfilled its promises to buy an air defence system.

At the time of Megrahi’s release in 2009, Labour’s government under Gordon Brown insisted there was no link to ‘blood money’ trade deals with Colonel Gaddafi.

Megrahi, a Libyan, was convicted under Scots Law of killing 270 people by blowing up a US airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988. He was sent home early from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds because he had terminal prostate cancer. He died last year. Ministers have always insisted that his release from prison was a decision taken solely by the Scottish Government.

The email was sent by Sir Vincent Fean, then the UK’s most senior diplomat in Libya, to Mr Blair, ahead of his visit to Gaddafi in June 2008. Mr Blair, who quit Downing Street a year earlier, was being updated on the UK’s ongoing relations with the Libyan dictator.

Prior to this, Mr Blair met Gaddafi and his Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi in his infamous visit to Sirte in a desert tent. The meeting thrashed out a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on prisoner transfers just before BP announced the firm was investing £545 million to search for oil reserves in Libya believed to be worth £13 billion.

But according to the email, Mr Blair and Baghdadi agreed Libya would buy a missile defence system from MBDA, part-owned by BAE Systems. When he returned in June 2008 the Government appeared to see a chance for him to push for the arms deal to be sealed.

Sir Vincent Fean wrote:

… There is one bilateral issue which I hope TB (Tony Blair) can raise, as a legacy issue. On 29 May 07 in Sirte, he and Libya’s PM agreed that Libya would buy an air defence system (Jernas) from the UK (MBDA).

… One year on, MBDA are now back in Tripoli aiming to agree and sign the contract now – worth £400 million, and up to 2,000 jobs in the UK. We think we have Col Q’s (Gaddafi’s) goodwill for this contract. This issue can also be raised with Libya’s PM. It was PM Baghdadi who told the media on 29 May 07 that Libya would buy British.

… Linked (by Libya) is the issue of the 4 bilateral justice agreements about which TB signed an MoU with Baghdadi on 29 May. The MoU says they will be negotiated within the year: they have been. They are all ready for signature in London as soon as Libya fulfils its promise on Jernas.

The prisoner transfer agreement was signed in November 2008.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary in Labour’s Government at the time of Megrahi’s release, said then it was ‘offensive’ to suggest it was linked to improving commercial relations with Libya.

On Sunday, Mandleson said:

… I was not aware of the correspondence covered in the FOI request.

A statement from Mr Blair’s side said the email did not show the UK government was trying to link the defence deal and Megrahi. A spokesperson for Mr Blair, said:

… Actually it shows the opposite – that any linkage was from the Libyan side. As far as we’re aware there was no linkage on the UK side. What the email in fact shows is that, consistent with what we have always said, it was made clear to the then Libyan leader that the release of Megrahi was a matter for Scotland. Of course the Libyans, as they always did, raised Megrahi.

MBDA says the Libyans never signed the arms deal.

But what is startling is the continuing emergence of revelations about the squalid relationship between the Blair government and Colonel Gaddafi.

First we learned of the willingness of the former British prime minister to fawn over an international terrorist as part of a charm offensive to win lucrative oil contracts.

With disclosures released under Freedom of Information, we now discover the grubby deal which allowed the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to be freed early from a Scottish prison was linked to Libya agreeing to buy £400 million of British arms.