The Lockerbie Case: Did Libyan Oil get al-Megrahi Released?

The story over the release of Libya's Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, continues to the point of near-obsession in Britain. The latest framing is whether the British Foreign Office told Libyan counterparts that it, and the British Prime Minister, did not want al-Megrahi "to die in prison".

Ali Yenidunya keeps his eye on the wider story over the economic context for the al-Megrahi case --- WSL.

Oliver Miles, the former UK ambassador to Libya, has told The Times that the Scottish and UK governments may have done “some kind of deal” with Libya to release Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi.

Miles, noting al-Megrahi’s lawyers applied on 12 August to the Scottish court to drop the appeal appeal against his conviction, even as the BBC was breaking the news that he was to be released, said, "I think there may have been some kind of deal. One part of the deal was to have the appeal dropped and the other part was the release on compassionate grounds." However Miles accepts the legal context of a release of al-Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, on compassionate grounds:

I don’t think there was a deal involving business. I think on that ministers are telling the truth. What they are saying is perfectly compatible with what the Libyans are saying.

However, leaked letters between Jack Straw, the British Justice Minister, and his Scottish counterpart Kenny MacAskill do point to an economic incentive for al-Megrahi's released. The exchange states that the return of the Lockerbie bomber to his home was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom”.

On 26 July 2007, Straw had written to MacAskill to exclude Megrahi from a prisoner transfer agreement with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. At the same time, a May 2007 deal for oil and gas, potentially worth up to £15 billion, between British Petroleum and the Libyan Government was being held up by Tripoli.

On 19 December 2007, Straw wrote to MacAskill to abandon the exclusion of Megrahi from the prisoner transfer agreement:

I had previously accepted the importance of the al-Megrahi issue to Scotland and 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.

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 [prisoner transfer agreement] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual.

So, in this case, did oil and politics mix?