THE BRITISH government dropped an attempt to exclude the Lockerbie bomber from its prisoner transfer agreement with Libya two years ago after resistance from Tripoli, it emerged yesterday.
Jack Straw, justice secretary, decided it was in the UK’s “overwhelming interests” to agree to Libyan calls for Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to be included in the agreement.
Mr Straw said yesterday that the decision was “academic” to this month’s release of Megrahi, which was taken by the Scottish executive on humanitarian grounds outside the prisoner transfer agreement (PTA).
The disclosure, made in letters to Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, who took the decision to release Megrahi, added fresh detail to a saga that has provoked outrage in the US and strained British relations with its transatlantic partner.
It prompted a strong reaction from opposition MPs, who have suggested the government’s stance was tied to Britain’s commercial interests in Libya. The government has strenuously denied this and insists that Megrahi’s release was a matter for the Scottish authorities.
“The suggestion that at any stage there was some kind of back-door deal done over Megrahi’s transfer, because of trade, is simply untrue,” Mr Straw said.
In one of the letters in question, Mr Straw had written: “The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the [PTA] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual,” therefore not excluding Megrahi.
Within six weeks of the decision on December 19th, 2007, Libya had ratified an exploration deal for oil and gas made with BP seven months earlier. Mr Straw’s spokesman said yesterday that the letter was about a wider attempt to normalise trade relations and “categorically” not related to the BP deal. Mr Straw said he had sought an exemption from the deal for Megrahi on behalf of the Scottish executive.
“However, such an exclusion went beyond the standard form of PTA treaties and in the event an agreement for a PTA in the standard form – including the rights of veto of any application – was agreed,” he said.
Mr Straw said the Scots had maintained an “effective exclusion” because they could still have resisted any attempt for Megrahi to be moved to Libya under the agreement.
Meanwhile, Megrahi has backed calls for a public inquiry into the atrocity, which claimed 270 lives in 1988.
The convicted bomber, released because he has terminal prostate cancer, said he had information that could help prove he had not committed the crime.
His lawyer told the Sunday Telegraph he would soon fly to Tripoli to prepare a dossier of evidence “proving” his client’s innocence. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)