Friday 23 July 2010

Senator calls Blair and Straw to give evidence over Megrahi release

Tony Blair is to be asked to appear before a Senate committee in Washington to give evidence about the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, say sources in the US. Leading politicians on Capitol Hill want to question the former prime minister about the relations between his government, the Libyans and BP – which is currently America's least-favourite oil company.

Tony Blair: bringing democracy to a nation near you

If Mr Blair takes up the invitation – which his office last night denied he had received – he will want to lay to rest US suspicions that the UK Government had its arms twisted by BP to do a deal with Libya to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only man ever convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, in return for oil concessions.

Jack Straw, the former justice secretary, has also been asked by Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey to travel to the US to give evidence to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 29 July. Mr Straw said last night: "Before coming to any decision as to whether to accept this invitation, I shall be consulting Gordon Brown, as Prime Minister at the time, and seeking the advice of the Foreign Office." Mr Straw told The Times that it was "highly unusual for the legislature of one country to inquire into the decisions made by a devolved administration of another", but added that in principle he had no objection to giving evidence about the prisoner transfer agreement he reached with Libya.

Senator Menendez has also requested that three other Britons appear before the committee – BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, the director of health and care in the Scottish Prison Service, Dr Andrew Fraser, and the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill. The affair could put a further strain on Anglo-US relations, because the roll call of those invited suggests that members of the committee do not fully accept what David Cameron told the US public during his visit to Washington this week, that the decision to release Megrahi was taken by the devolved Scottish administration alone, on purely compassionate grounds.