Release of al-Megrahi was linked to a trade deal? (update)

Further to last night's piece, Newsnight now have last night's edition on iPlayer and the relevant question is from around 12:12 and runs thus from Gavin Esler:

"I notice, just while we've been on air, from Tripoli, Mr Gray, the son of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is saying that this release was linked with trade deals with Britain, is that right?"

You can then watch Iain Gray evade the question and answer a completely different one and Gavin Esler does not press the point on a Labour MSP.


Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is the son of Colonel Gaddafi whose interests include diplomatic roles on behalf of his father and has said that Libya admitted responsibility (but not admitted "guilt") for the Lockerbie bombing simply to get trade sanctions removed.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is the son of Colonel Gaddafi who has further admitted that Libya was being "hypocritical" and was "playing on words", but Libya had no other choice on the matter.

Saif al-Islam Gaddaffi is the son of Colonel Gaddafi who has said that a letter admitting "responsibility" was the only way to end the economic sanctions imposed on Libya.

Saif al-Islam Gaddaffi is the son of Colonel Gaddafi who when asked about the compensation that Libya was paying to the victims' families, again repeated that Libya was doing so because it had no other choice.

Saif al-Islam Gaddaffi is the son of Colonel Gaddafi who last night said that this release was linked with trade deals with Britain.

Saif al-Islam Gaddaffi is the son of Colonel Gaddafi who met with Peter Mandelson (currently still Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills and President of the Board of Trade) at that now infamous Corfu villa a week before the release of al-Megrahi was announced.

Saif al-Islam Gaddaffi is the son of Colonel Gaddafi who according to The Independent has played a "decisive role" in "each of the major diplomatic breakthroughs that have brought Libya in from the cold and advanced it to the status of "strategic partner" to the UK... he has been at the centre of the secret accords, trade deals, compensation packages and prisoner exchanges that have marked the country's return to respectability."


Which journalist will be the first to question Peter Mandelson about the claims of Saif al-Islam Gaddaffi? I note that The Telegraph have questioned David Miliband, who as Foreign Secretary has some responsibility in this area, however it is Peter Mandelson who may have more to reveal. As I blogged recently, the Financial Times reported that a spokesman for Peter Mandelson said that

"the pair spoke only briefly but they did discuss Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. “There was a fleeting conversation about the prisoner; Peter was completely unsighted on the subject,” he said.

...

Lord Mandelson said through his spokesman that he had had no involvement in the decision and only learnt of it through the BBC. Mr Megrahi’s possible release was a decision entirely for the Scottish government rather than London.

“It was entirely coincidental,” the spokesman said. "

Interestingly Peter Mandelson's spokesman denied that his boss and Colonel Gadaffi's son discussed in any depth the release of al-Megrahi, but he was not questioned about the trade deals that link Libya and the UK, were they discussed?


The more I find out about the al-Megrahi "compassionate" release, the more I think that this story has legs and could actually prove to be the downfall of this Labour government. More and more people are beginning to realise quite how this Labour government operates, in the interests of money & power and not of justice and the people don't like it. Maybe soon a point will be reached where enough people feel angry enough that a general election may be forced upon Gordon "courage" Brown and Peter "twice disgraced" Mandelson.