British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was drawn into a damaging row yesterday over the release of the Lockerbie bomber after revelations a British minister told Libya the prime minister did not want him to die in prison.
Minister of State for the Armed Forces Bill Rammell confirmed late on Tuesday that he suggested to Libyan officials that the prime minister and Foreign Secretary David Miliband did not want bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi to die in a Scottish jail.
Rammell’s comments to the Libyans were contained in notes of a meeting released earlier on Tuesday by the Scottish government about Megrahi, the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing that killed 270.
PHOTO: AFP
“I did say that,” Rammell told the BBC. “But we need to put it in context. I was making it emphatically clear that this was a decision for Scottish ministers.”
Rammell also said: “I have not discussed this [his comments] with the prime minister either before or after [his meeting].”
Rammell, then Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, met a Libyan minister and officials in Tripoli in February, six months before the release, a move that sparked outrage from the White House and US relatives of the victims.
The revelations are likely to increase pressure on Brown, whose government has insisted that the decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds was one solely taken by the semi-autonomous Scottish government.
The leader of the opposition Conservatives accused Brown of “double dealing” on the issue and called for an independent inquiry into what the government had “done in our name.”
“Tonight the British government stands accused and indeed the prime minister stands accused of double dealing,” leader David Cameron said. “On the one hand apparently saying to the Americans they wanted Megrahi to die in prison, but on the other hand saying privately to the Libyans that they wanted him released.”
The Brown government also published letters and documents on the Megrahi case on Tuesday in a bid to defuse the increasingly damaging row.
The government hoped publication of the documents would counter accusations that Megrahi was released as part of a deal to smooth the wheels of a massive oil and gas deal with oil-rich Libya.
Notes from a meeting between Libya’s minister for Europe, Abdulati Alobidi, and Scottish officials on March 12 suggested Brown and Miliband were opposed to Megrahi dying in a Scottish jail.
The notes, published by the Scottish government, said: “Mr Alobidi confirmed that he had reiterated to Mr Rammell that the death of Mr Megrahi in a Scottish prison would have catastrophic effects for the relationship between Libya and the UK. Mr Alobidi went on to say that Mr Rammell had stated that neither the Prime Minister nor the Foreign Secretary would want Mr Megrahi to pass away in prison but the decision on transfer lies in the hands of the Scottish ministers.”
Scotland freed Megrahi on Aug. 20 because he has terminal cancer. The Libyan served eight years of a life sentence for the bombing of a Pan Am jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.
Britain and the US condemned the joyous scenes that greeted his return to Tripoli, despite an appeal from Brown in a letter to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to keep the occasion low-key.
The release of the letters came as Qaddafi marked the 40th anniversary on Tuesday of the bloodless coup that brought him to power.
Susan Cohen, whose daughter was killed in the Lockerbie atrocity, accused politicians on all sides of putting profits before justice.
“I think there was collusion between the governments. It’s all very horrible — it was all down to financial contracts,” she said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS