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Blair's trips to Gadhafi raise Lockerbie suspicions
Source: Agencies |
September 19, 2011, Monday
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A SPOKESMAN for former UK prime minister Tony Blair yesterday confirmed he had visited Moammar Gadhafi in Libya in the months before the Lockerbie bomber was freed from jail, but insisted there was no impropriety in the contacts.
UK newspaper Sunday Telegraph said it had found letters and emails showing Blair, who left office in 2007, had visited Gadhafi in June 2008 and April 2009.
They said he once used the Libyan leader's jets and brought along a US billionaire. Gadhafi has since been ousted by rebels.
The paper said Blair, prime minister for 10 years until 2007, made no mention of the trips on his websites.
Blair's visits came ahead of the release from a Scottish prison of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US-bound airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
At the time of Blair's visits, Tripoli was threatening to cut business links with the UK if Megrahi, a former Libyan agent, was not released.
Blair's spokesman said the trips were not a secret, and there had been nothing untoward about them.
The spokesman said: "The subjects of the conversations during Mr Blair's occasional visits was primarily Africa, as Libya was for a time head of the African Union, but also the Middle East and how Libya should reform and open up.
"Of course the Libyans, as they always did, raised Megrahi. Mr Blair explained, as he always did, in -office and out of it, that it was not a decision for the UK government but for the Scottish executive."
Megrahi was freed by Scottish authorities, which operate a criminal justice system independent of London, on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after doctors said he had terminal cancer and just three months to live.
The move angered the US government and relatives of the 189 Americans killed in the bombing. Megrahi is still alive more than two years later. Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, has always said London was not involved in the decision.
Pam Dix, whose brother was one of those killed, told the Sunday Telegraph: "These new meetings between Mr Blair and Gadhafi are disturbing, and details of what was discussed should now be made public. I am astonished Tony Blair continued to have meetings like this out of office."
UK newspaper Sunday Telegraph said it had found letters and emails showing Blair, who left office in 2007, had visited Gadhafi in June 2008 and April 2009.
They said he once used the Libyan leader's jets and brought along a US billionaire. Gadhafi has since been ousted by rebels.
The paper said Blair, prime minister for 10 years until 2007, made no mention of the trips on his websites.
Blair's visits came ahead of the release from a Scottish prison of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US-bound airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
At the time of Blair's visits, Tripoli was threatening to cut business links with the UK if Megrahi, a former Libyan agent, was not released.
Blair's spokesman said the trips were not a secret, and there had been nothing untoward about them.
The spokesman said: "The subjects of the conversations during Mr Blair's occasional visits was primarily Africa, as Libya was for a time head of the African Union, but also the Middle East and how Libya should reform and open up.
"Of course the Libyans, as they always did, raised Megrahi. Mr Blair explained, as he always did, in -office and out of it, that it was not a decision for the UK government but for the Scottish executive."
Megrahi was freed by Scottish authorities, which operate a criminal justice system independent of London, on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after doctors said he had terminal cancer and just three months to live.
The move angered the US government and relatives of the 189 Americans killed in the bombing. Megrahi is still alive more than two years later. Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, has always said London was not involved in the decision.
Pam Dix, whose brother was one of those killed, told the Sunday Telegraph: "These new meetings between Mr Blair and Gadhafi are disturbing, and details of what was discussed should now be made public. I am astonished Tony Blair continued to have meetings like this out of office."
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