Corruption is a Crime

Tony Blair’s role in the blocking of a criminal investigation into the Al Yamamah arms deal should be investigated by an independent inquiry, says newly elected Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

In a sign that he will continue the tough line taken by previous Liberal Democrat leaders, Mr Clegg responded to the publication of a letter from then Prime Minister Tony Blair to the Attorney General saying its contents confirmed his “very worst fears”.

As the BBC reports:

The letter from Mr Blair to Lord Goldsmith dated 8 December 2006 was released to the High Court during a case brought by two pressure groups who are challenging the legality of the decision to end investigations into BAE Systems’ dealings with Saudi Arabia.

It refers to “critical difficulties” that might have affected the major contract for new Typhoon military aircraft.

There was uproar when the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into the Al Yamamah contract from the 1980s was dropped, but Mr Blair insisted the decision was taken on security grounds.

Mr Clegg called for an independent inquiry into Mr Blair’s role and insisted that a National Audit Office report on the deal, which has never been made public, should be released.

He said: “Tony Blair must urgently explain what he thought he was up to by invoking the Typhoon contract as a reason to stop the SFO investigation.

“As his own attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, made clear to him between December 2005 and December 2006, commercial relations are an improper basis under international law to suspend a legal investigation.

“Knowing this, why did Tony Blair persist in pursuing a legally improper line of argument which could amount to an attempt to pervert the course of justice?”

Whilst the UK Government decided to axe Britain’s investigation into corruption allegations arrising from the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia, the Swiss are cooperating with the US’s own investigation:

Swiss prosecutors have also agreed to hand over financial records linked to the Saudi Royal family, according to a report by the Guardian newspaper. A US source told the paper “The investigators are confident they can get what they need from Switzerland. That’s where all the BAE arrangements were made”.

Read more in Arabian Business.

Following up yesterday’s story about Vince Cable’s boycott of the Saudi state visit, here’s a link to his article in The Independent in which he expands on his decision:

The British government should not have offered the accolade of a state visit to the head of a regime which is authoritarian and deeply corrupt. Our own Foreign Office has described Saudi Arabia, without hyperbole, as follows: “Women are subject to discrimination. Prisoners suffer maltreatment and torture. Capital punishment is imposed without adequate safeguards and often executed in a cruel way and in public. Amputations are imposed as corporal punishment … We also have concerns about freedom of expression, assembly and religion.” British expatriates have been tortured to extract false confessions of involvement in terrorism.
[...]
Trade, too, is beneficial but not at any price and not if it is lubricated by bribery and government subsidy. The massive Al Yamamah arms contract, spanning two decades, has left a deep stain on British public life. Conservative and Labour governments have been complicit in large-scale corruption. Our legal system has been compromised by a refusal, under Saudi pressure, to pursue fraud investigations. Parliament has been compromised by the suppression of a Public Accounts Committee inquiry, which could embarrass the Saudis – the only such report thus suppressed in the history of parliament.

Read the full article here.

Vince Cable MP, the Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, is to boycott the state visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to the United Kingdom. According to the BBC:

Mr Cable says he will not attend any of the planned ceremonial events - as would be normal for the leader of one of the main opposition parties.

Mr Cable told the BBC’s Today programme that by any assessment of Saudi Arabia, “the human rights record is appalling”.

He also cited the regime’s arms deal with the British firm BAE and the row over alleged corruption surrounding it.

The International Herald Tribune quotes from Vince Cable’s letter to the Saudi ambassador:

“I have introduced three debates in Parliament this year expressing serious concerns over the al-Yamamah contract and the corruption allegedly involved. I have, in my arguments, also been very critical of members of the Saudi royal family and the Saudi record on human rights, including its maltreatment of British citizens,” the letter said.

“In my opinion, it is quite wrong for the British government to have proposed a state visit at this time. Therefore, it would, I believe, be inappropriate for me to participate in a ceremonial state visit against this background.”

Read more from:

• The Herald
• The Guardian
• ITN
• ePolitix.com