UK government: We did talk about al-Megrahi

UK Justice Minister Jack Straw, admitted Saturday (Sunday NZT) that the fate of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi had formed part of Britain's negotiations with Libya over a multi-billion pound deal for oil exploration in that country.

Straw admitted that two years ago the British government attempted to get the Libyans to agree to a clause in a prisoner-transfer agreement that would have ruled out any possibility of al-Megrahi being sent back to Libya to complete his prison sentence there, rather than in Scotland. But the Libyans refused to make the exemption.

While these negotiations were going on, BP was waiting for Libya to ratify the biggest oil exploration deal in the country's history.

That was finally done just weeks after Straw had backed down on the prisoner-transfer issue.

It was revealed yesterday that Straw wrote to MacAskill in July 2007 saying he favoured an option that would stipulate that al-Megrahi would not qualify under the prisoner-transfer agreement that Tony Blair had endorsed when he visited Libya three years earlier.

The transfer deal was part of a package to reward Libya for renouncing terror and dismantling its nuclear weapons programme.

The package also opened Libya's vast oil reserves for exploration by BP and other oil majors.

In December 2007, Straw wrote to MacAskill again, saying he had changed his mind.

"I had previously accepted the importance of the al-Megrahi issue to Scotland, and I said I would try to get an exclusion for him on the face of the agreement. I have not been able to secure an explicit exclusion," he wrote. "The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the agreement should be in the standard form and not mention any individual."

Less than two months after he wrote this letter, the deal with BP was finally ratified by the Libyans.

The revelation increased political pressure yesterday for an inquiry into the Lockerbie atrocity, backed by opposition politicians and by Jim Swire, whose daughter was killed on Pan Am Flight 103 when it was exploded over the Scottish village.

Frank Duggan, president of the family group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "If there was a direct connection with trade, particularly oil, then the connection is with Britain, not with Scotland, and I think the Brits will have something to answer for."

Downing Street fiercely denied that this revelation was the "smoking gun" which proved that the UK government was behind the decision made by the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, to let Mr Megrahi return to Libya to die.

Straw insisted on the BBC admitted that agreement on the prisoner- transfer deal was linked to political and diplomatic efforts to normalise relations with Libya.

But he said that the revelation was academic because al-Megrahi was not in the end released under the transfer agreement, but on health grounds.

- THE INDEPENDENT, NZHERALD STAFF