Reply #1: Lockerbie bomber's release linked to trade deal, claims Gaddafi's son [View All]

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif, claimed the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, was linked to trade deals between Britain and Libya.


Saif al Islam Gaddafi said that Megrahi’s return was a “victory” for all Libyans. He made the claims in a television interview for Libyan television recorded as he accompanied Megrahi on the flight back from Scotland to Libya on Thursday.The claims were vehemently denied by the UK government. No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country.”

The claims came as Megrahi said he would produce evidence proving his innocence before he dies.

In an interview with The Times, Megrahi said: My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence and ask them to be the jury.” He refused to elaborate, or speculate about who was responisble for the deaths.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/08/20098223544565123.html
The comments came after President Obama condemned the welcome Megrahi received in Libya as 'highly objectionable'. Mr Obama's chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, earlier denounced the scenes in the Libyan capital Tripoli when returned home as "outrageous and disgusting".


snip

The Foreign Office is now understood to be reviewing a plan for Prince Andrew to represent Britian at celebrations marking 40 years of Col Gaddafi's rule. The prince, a British trade envoy, has made several previous trips to Libya, where several large British energy firms hold oil and gas contracts. A Foreign Office source said that the level of Britain's representation at the event is now being reconsidered.

snip

Megrahi, 57, a former intelligence agent who has terminal prostate cancer, was greeted in Tripoli by a crowd of thousands along with relatives and the Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al Islam Gaddafi. After he left Scottish soil, Megrahi, who has served eight years of a 27-year sentence, released a statement protesting his innocence and expressing his "sympathy" for the families of the 270 people he was convicted of killing.






http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6070357/Lockerbie-bombers-release-linked-to-trade-deal-claims-Gaddafis-son.html

November 01, 2008
Business interests

The developments come amid a huge increase in interest from US companies, particularly in the energy sector, in doing business in Libya, where European firms have had much greater access in recent years. Libya's proven oil reserves are the world's ninth-largest, believed to be close to 39 billion barrels, and vast areas of the country remain unexplored for new deposits.

All 269 passengers and crew, including 180 Americans, on the Pan Am aircraft and 11 people on the ground were killed in the Lockerbie bombing.

Three people, including two US soldiers, were killed and 230 wounded in the
Berlin disco attack.

Reagan subsequently ordered airstrikes on targets in Tripoli and Benghazi that Libyans say killed 41 people, including Gadhafi's adopted daughter.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/10/20081031192535751952.html