The British Government will publish its correspondence with Scottish ministers over releasing the Lockerbie bomber, a government spokeswoman said Monday, a day after a newspaper reported that officials believed a deal was in the UK's "overwhelming interests."
A spokeswoman at Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office said all "relevant correspondence" between British ministers and the Scottish executive over Abdel Baset al-Megrahi would be released Tuesday, but would not give any more details. She spoke anomymously in line with government policy.
The Sunday Times reported that the British government allowed Abdel Baset al-Megrahi to be included in a prisoner transfer agreement because it was in the UK's "overwhelming interests" as a major oil deal was being negotiated.
Jack Straw, Britain's justice minister, had originally tried to ensure that al-Megrahi was exempted from any prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, but in December 2007 he wrote MacAskill saying "wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in the view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom" a standard prisoner transfer agreement, that would apply to all prisoners with no exemptions, would be agreed to, the Times said.
The oil deal, the Times reported, was concluded six weeks later.
Al-Magrahi was released this month on compassionate grounds, instead of through a prisoner transfer agreemen. Scottish officials and British officials insist that there is no connection between any oil deals and al-Megrahi's release.
