Industry | 2009.09.03
Salmond drawn into Megrahi row
Qatari minister pressed Salmond over Lockerbie bomber\'s fate during meeting discussing possible trade investment
Alex Salmond has been personally linked to the "trade for terrorists" row after it emerged that a major Arab oil state raised the fate of Lockerbie bomber during talks with the Scottish first minister on bilateral trade deals.
Salmond is in talks with the Qatari government about investment links and is believed to have discussed substantial Qatari loans to fund flagship projects such as a new £2bn Forth road bridge, major subsea electricity cables and other capital programmes under the Scottish Futures Trust funding body.
It has now emerged that the Qatari minister for international cooperation, Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah, personally pressed Salmond over the fate of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi at a meeting on 11 June to discuss possible investments.
The minister then asked for Megrahi to be released on compassionate grounds in a further letter in July in which he also represented the Arab League, the powerful umbrella body for Middle Eastern and north African oil states.
The Scottish Tory leader, Annabel Goldie, alleged today that these disclosures raised questions about whether the Scottish government was influenced by commercial interests when it decided to release Megrahi.
Goldie asked for all official documents on all talks with Arab oil states to be released, and asked the first minister whether he still planned to visit Qatar. "This doesn\'t look good," she said.
A senior Tory peer, Lord Trefgarne, also lobbied Edinburgh this summer on behalf of Scottish oil and engineering companies in the Libyan British Business Council; this body also helped arranged two major Libyan "road shows" to meet 130 Aberdeen-based firms last year and 80 firms in 2007.
Salmond, facing the first direct questions about trade links to Megrahi\'s release after similar allegations were levelled against the UK government, strenuously denied there was any connection. His officials promised to release minutes of the Qatari meeting later today.
The first minister said the Qataris and everyone else who raised the Libyan\'s case had been clearly told it was solely a matter for Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary. Allegations that trade and the release were tied were "ridiculous," he said.
Salmond added that "anybody who has followed this issue" knew that he was hostile to the prisoner transfer agreement signed by Tony Blair with Libya in 2007 – the treaty first raised by the Qataris. However, the Tories said the Qataris also asked for compassionate release for Megrahi.
"There\'s no linkage with the SFT [Scottish Futures Trust], but as a government we will always look to encourage trade, from America, from Europe, from anywhere in the world. But as a government we took decisions [on Megrahi] based on judicial grounds alone," Salmond said.
"There\'s just absolutely no substance in that linkage, none whatsoever."
Salmond\'s officials later pointed out the Qatari letter was released by the Scottish government among the 86 documents on the Megrahi affair published on Tuesday, suggesting they had "nothing to hide".
However, the disclosure overshadowed confirmation by Salmond today that his nationalist government would press ahead with legislation to hold a referendum on Scottish independence next year, one of 13 new bills being introduced this year.
The Tories believe that Scottish ministers had been negotiating with the Libyans on Megrahi\'s release since at least October last year, when Megrahi\'s terminal cancer was first disclosed, and had been aware of Libyan threats to tie Megrahi\'s fate to trade from November last year.
Minutes of meetings published by the Scottish government suggest strong hints were being made by senior officials to the Libyans as early as October 2008 that he might be freed, the Tories added.
This pressure on Salmond has arisen largely because the Scottish oil and gas companies, as well as major UK oil firms such as BP, with the greatest interest in Libyan contracts also have very strong ties to Aberdeen, in the Scottish National party heartland of north-east Scotland.
The Guardian has established that 10 Aberdeen-based oil and gas industry companies have visited Libya with the official investment agencies Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International. In March this year, Scottish Enterprise also ran a Libyan National Oil Corporation visit to Aberdeen.
Salmond said he had never discussed the Megrahi case with these companies. "I have never met any of them and never discussed it with any of them," he said.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/03/salmond-megrahi-qatar
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