Ministers under pressure to reopen BAE corruption probe
I made clear at the time that I found this simply astonishing:
So, according to Straw's version, the Saudi Arabians threatened to withdraw from co-operating in intelligence matters with the UK unless all investigations into this possible crime were dropped.I am pleased to say that the High Court sounded equally astonished yesterday when they issued their damning verdict on Blair's interference with the inquiry into Prince Bandar's allegedly illegal deal on the grounds that to continue the inquiry would damage national security.
The Saudi Arabians? The country which had fifteen of it's young men fly planes into the Twin Towers is now in a position to threaten to withdraw intelligence aid to country's threatened by al-Qaeda?
Am I living in some parallel universe? Since when did a country that had fifteen of it's citizens take part in the world's worst terrorist atrocity get to, effectively, threaten other country's security - by withdrawing intelligence co-operation - unless they ceased investigating them for possible crimes?
This was yet another Blair decision which I found blatantly illegal. I am pleased that the High court have found they way they have. The government must now decide whether to reopen the investigation into the Al-Yamamah deal. And if Brown doesn't there are plenty of others waiting in the wings to take this matter further.The judges rejected claims that the inquiry had to be closed down for security reasons because "lives were at risk", and said the success of Saudi blackmail attempts had been unlawful. The judgment named Saudi Prince Bandar as the man behind what they characterised as an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
The judges said: "We fear for the reputation of the administration of justice if it can be perverted by a threat ... No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice. The rule of law is nothing if it fails to constrain overweening power."
The court said that the Saudis should have been made to understand "the enormity of the interference with the UK's sovereignty, when a foreign power seeks to interfere with the internal administration of the criminal law. It is not difficult to imagine what they would think if we attempted to interfere with their criminal justice system".
Among those waiting to see what Gordon Brown will do is the anti-bribery committee of the OECD, who spent last week in London grilling British officials about the apparent flouting of an international treaty. Investigators in Switzerland and the US Department of Justice, who took up the Saudi case when Britain abandoned it, will also be awaiting the government's next move. Ministers have so far refused to assist the US which has made requests for documents under a mutual legal assistance treaty.
Campaigners and MPs yesterday called for Brown to distance himself from his predecessor and allow the BAE inquiry to restart. Susan Hawley, of Corner House, one of the two groups of campaigners who brought yesterday's case, said: "The judges have stood up for the right of independent prosecutors not to be subjected to political pressure and they have made sure that the government cannot use national security arrangements just because a prosecution is not in their interests."
It's over to Brown now to see if he will reject the judgment of Blair which has now been deemed illegal by the High court. Or is also going to be blackmailed by the Saudi authorities?
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2 comments:
The Saudi Royals are used to buying whatever they want.
What's astonishing is that Blair allowed them to carry that attitude into the British judicial system.
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