Hague blocks access to Megrahi officials

FT

Britain has refused requests from a US Senate investigating team to interview officials involved in the decision to free the Libyan convicted for destroying Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

William Hague, UK foreign secretary, has made clear that the employment code for civil servants prohibits them from discussing with a foreign nation any advice given to past ministers.

The decision will be a blow to the Senate Foreign Relations committee investigators, who arrive in London this week seeking to collect evidence on the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing who was freed by the Scottish government last year.

The Senate began an inquiry into the case after evidence emerged that BP lobbied the British government to ratify a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya in 2007, when Tony Blair was prime minister.

Mr Megrahi’s release, however, was not made under this arrangement; instead the Scottish authorities chose to free him on compassionate grounds because he was dying of cancer.

The senators want more information about how the Scottish government reached the medical conclusion that he had only three months to live. They are also seeking details of communications between the UK government and BP, the oil company, over the release.

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