2009/08/22

UK denies Megrahi's release linked to trade ties

Britain denies allegations that the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was linked to any trade deals with Libya.

"No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country," a Foreign Office spokesman quoting Foreign Secretary David Miliband told AFP on Friday, after the interview by the Libyan leader's son on Thursday night.

"All decisions relating to Megrahi's case have been exclusively for Scottish ministers, the Crown Office in Scotland and the Scottish judicial authorities", he said.

He added that 57-year-old Megrahi was released only on the grounds of illness after doctors treating him for prostate cancer said that he had no more than three months to live.

Seif al-Islam, son of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said in an interview broadcast by the Libyan channel al-Mutawassit, that in all of Britain's commercial contracts for oil and gas with Libya, 'Megrahi was on the negotiating table'.

Even Britain's then prime minister Tony Blair raised Megrahi's case each time he visited Libya, he said. Blair visited Libya in May 2007 as prime minister, during which British energy giant BP as well as the BG Group and Shell secured substantial contracts with Libya, with BP alone signing a USD 900 million exploration deal.

Seif al-Islam added, "All British interests were linked to the release of Megrahi."

He called Megrahi's release a 'victory'. "Your liberation is a victory that we offer to all Libyans," he said in his interview.

Megrahi was the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people in the air and on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

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