| Kippreport.com

Straw admits trade deal influenced Lockerbie bomber release

September 6, 2009 12:01 by kippreport

UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw admitted that trade and oil influenced the nation’s decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, on compassionate grounds, reports London-based newspaper the Daily Telegraph.

When asked by the daily if trade and BP were factors in the deal, Straw said: “Yes, [it was] a very big part of that. I’m unapologetic about that… Libya was a rogue state.”

“We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade because trade is an essential part of it and subsequently there was the BP deal,” he added.

Straw’s comments contradict a statement the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made earlier this week claiming that the trade deal and the prisoner’s release are unrelated: “There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no private assurances.”

Tags: bomber, Libya, Lockerbie, trade, UK