Court condemns end to Saudi arms probe

10/04/2008 22:49

By David Clarke and Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - A corruption investigation into arms deals with Saudi Arabia should not have been halted, a London court said on Thursday in a ruling that sharply criticised the British and Saudi governments.

Two judges said the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had capitulated to threats from the Saudi royal family over arms deals with Europe’s biggest defence company, BAE Systems Plc.

"No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice," one of the judges, Lord Justice Moses, told the High Court in London, calling the decision a failure of government.

"The law is powerless to resist the specific and, as it turns out, successful attempt by a foreign government to pervert the course of justice in the United Kingdom," Moses said.

Two anti-arms trade campaigners had said there was "very large scale bribery" of senior Saudi Arabian officials by the arms manufacturer over the state-to-state Al Yamamah deal and said the probe was halted after the threats.

"That threat was intended to prevent the (SFO) director from pursuing the course of investigation he had chosen to adopt. It achieved its purpose," Moses said.

Saudi envoys in London had no immediate comment.

Critics have attacked former .....continued below

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Prime Minister Tony Blair for saying it was right to halt the investigation, arguing it would damage Britain’s national security.

Arms sales to Saudi Arabia under the Al Yamamah pact dating back to the 1980s represent the biggest export deals in Britain and their cancellation would threaten thousands of jobs.

The judges allowed the challenge to the SFO decision by anti-arms campaigners, the Corner House Research Group and the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), to go ahead last November.

"This was the most extreme example so far of the levels to which the government will go to promote the interests of BAE regardless of the public interest," a CAAT spokesman told reporters after the judgment.

AIRCRAFT DEAL THREATENED

The groups had argued the SFO abandoned its investigation in December 2006 following Saudi threats to cancel a proposed order for Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft and to withdraw security and intelligence cooperation.

"The SFO are carefully considering the implications of the judgment and the way forward," an SFO spokeswoman said after the highly critical ruling.

A BAE spokeswoman said: "The case was between two campaign groups and the director of the SFO. It concerned the legality of a decision made by the director of the SFO. BAE Systems played no part in that decision."

Britain and Saudi Arabia, who have been signing arms deals since the 1960s, announced a 4.43 billion pound contract for 72 Eurofighter jets in September last year, fending off French and U.S. rivals.

The Al Yamamah deals were first signed in the 1980s after extensive lobbying by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher and have been worth an estimated $86 billion (44 billion pounds).

(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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